Ridiculous
by theallpowerfullme
Summary: Puppyshipping Yami/Hikari-- For various reasons Katsuya's forced into a different part of the shadow realms, now he's gotta deal with being the Red Eyes Black Dragon's 'Master' and having to live with all the Duel Monsters, sexy Seto, and his friends!
1. Really Ridiculous

Yo, My first Yu-Gi-Oh fic....does that guarantee the epicness of my fail?

**LOokY HerE!-**I don't own any of the YGO characters, so really....Okay So I really think these this are pointless because, really, who would write a _FANFICTION_ if they owned it? Couldn't they like just write it in the story or as a side-story or something?

**Warning~**: So, yeah, my mind isn't exactly _clean _per se......And I put their first names first, cause that's the way my lightbulb drops.

(the following are for author use only and are here so she doesn't misplace them: Dark eradicator warlock, silent magician lvl 4)

* * *

The first time Katsuya Jounouchi heard the voice he was making himself breakfast and dropped the egg. Not a pleasant experience--especially when it was the last egg he had until his next paycheck three days later.

The second time he'd been _trying _to ignore his own voice in his head when the voice popped up out of _nowhere _and decided that self-indulgence once in a while was not a bad thing. Both of the voices, both of which Katsuya was smart enough to ignore, ignored the lack of money to indulge in himself.

The third time it was cursing at him for not fighting back and just being kicked out by his abusive father.

And after that, it just decided to keep him company. Some of the time, Katsuya actually enjoyed the company, but then there were _these _times. And in a way it wasn't one of _those _'these' times, but one of _those_ times before the voice. The Shadow Realm times.

**_Little Puppy, just_**_ go_**_._**

_Who in their fuckin' right minds would jus' merrily step into a portal to the fuckin' Shadow Realms?!_

_**Obviously not you. Trust me, Little Puppy, this is not the realm you had earlier travel in.**_

Katsuya looked at the dark tunnel, the portal, that would ultimately take him to his doom. _Nothing _in this world could convince him to go back there. Hell, not even his dad would. Or that goddamn Seto Kaiba.

**_You've been living off the streets for three weeks. You refuse to tell your friends, you've hardly seen them in the past few months, trying to keep them from seeing your father's growing brutality. You're hungry, broke, have no shelter, and feel disgusting. Going through that portal will give you everything you need for a while. You may even come back._**

"No." Katsuya said, turning around, only to be suddenly sucked into the portal against his will.

------------------------

Atemu frown. Now, Yugi new Atemu frowned at lots of things--like the contraptions (cars) that insist on trying to run him over when he tries to cross the street--but it wasn't one of those frowns. In fact, this frown did nothing but send chills down Yugi's small spine.

"Atemu?"

Atemu's eyes narrowed, glowing, like they did when he tapped into his shadow magic. No, Yugi figured, something was **not** right.

"What is it?" Yugi continued, staring at his larger look-a-like. "What's happened?"

"There's something....it's the Shadow Realms. There's a portal. But it was only opened enough to possibly allow one to enter." Atemu looked at Yugi, glazing an unhelpable, appreciating glace down the little body dressed in casual attire and an apron, and back into his worried violet eyes. "We must find the other Yamis, as much as I dislike the idea."

"Too late, lazy pharoh." Bakura walked into the game shop, followed by Ryou, Seth, Isis, Marik, and Malik. "We've been feeling the pressure you've ignore for the past few months."

"I no longer wished to be caught in the shadow business. I believed no harm would have come to by this." Atemu grimaced.

"This stupidity had lost you your last life, Pharoh." Marik pointed out and sniggered. Malik merely slapped his arm. "Ow!"

"He's right." Seth agreed, nodding his head and smirking along with sending a superior look to Atemu. Atemu glared back. How dare Seth _still _challenge him.

"Why don't you just go get your Hikari and let the intelligent do their work, Priest."

"My Hikari is busy doing smart things--like running one of the largest companies in Japan-- unlike you who sits at a shop all day _waiting_ for a customer to enter."

"You guys, stop!" Yugi demanded.

"Why don't we gather Jou, Honda, and Anzu and try to figure this out?" Ryou suggested, linking his arms cautiously with Bakura and trying to redirect the darkening conversation, "They'd maybe able to help, too."

"That sounds like a plan!" Yugi eagerly agreed, taking his eyes from the glare-fighting pharoh and priest, "I'll call Anzu and Honda; does anyone know where Jou might be?" There was silence at the question, one that easily didn't bode well with Yugi's stomach. "Has...has anyone seen Jou lately?"

"I saw, 'im. Three days ago." Bakura muttered, "He didn't look good, skinny and dirty as hell. Think he saw me 'cause our eyes connected and before I could blink, he was gone."

"And you didn't say anything?!" Ryou yelled, squeezing Bakura's arm.

Seth also sent the thief a look of immediate disapproval. Things like that would make_ someone_ he knew not too happy.

"There wasn't nothing to say," Bakura grumbled some. He looked at Yugi and motioned him to go on, "Is it just that soul that's useless, or do both of you have crap wrong with your brains?"

"Listen, thief, I will not have you talking to--" Atemu stood, challenging Bakura just to have Yugi pull him away.

"Atemu, let's get working on this; as much as I hate to say it, I have a feeling Jou's already over his head."

---------------------------------

"Urg...I'm _so _over my head." Katsuya moaned, holding his head and sitting up. It felt like he'd just spun in a circle a million times and suddenly stopped. "Stupid controlin' voices, wit' stupid controlin' ways."

"This controling way has gotten me very far, I thank you." It was the voice in his head, but it wasn't_ in _his head.

He looked at familiar, armored, cloaked, dark feet and followed them up.

"Stupid voice, stupid me, stupid controlin'---"

"Al'right, Little Puppy, I understand you are not of the happiest of beings right now, but I assure you, once you bathe and eat, you'll feel better."

Katsuya stood, still holding his head as he caught his footing, and stared darkly at the man in front of him. He was proud of himself for not completely freaking out and running around screaming like a chicken who got its head cut off. But then again, he'd been through hell and back, pretty much literally, and few thing freaked him out like they used to. "Listen," he poked the man's armored chest, "Misteh Dark Magician--"

"Leto."

"_Leto,"_ Katsuya continued, "You don' honestly think that just because ya offer me food, a bath, and a place t' stay tha' I'll forgive ya--"

"_Master!_" Oh, gods, will he _ever _get to finish telling the controlling asshole off?

Katsuya turned around to tell off Leto's companion only to become wide-eyed and filled with giddy-ness when he saw the giant red-eyes black dragon waddling towards him, almost like a excited child. Well, he said that food, a bath, and a place to stay wouldn't make him forgive the magician, but hell, this could make anyone fill with forgiveness...and slightly feel largely simple minded.

"R-red eyes?"

"_Master, Leto was really able to convince you?" _The dragon stopped and lowered his head to Katsuya's, examining his small, neglected master.

"There was no convincin'. There was askin', then forcin'...." Katsuya put his hand up, as if to pet the dragon but never actually did until the dragon nuzzled his hand that was just _so small_ against the dragon's muzzle. "Oh, Gods, you're beau'iful, Red Eyes."

The dragon moved his nose passed Katsuya's hand and nuzzled sweetly, like a kitten, against his face, "_Please, call me Akash, Master; and thank-you." _Akash moved his head and snorted smoke angrily in Leto's face. "_You _forced _him, Leto?"_

"I may have brought him against his will, but look at him; would you rather me to have not?"

Akash gave Katsuya another once over...and shook his head.

Katsuya groaned; was the entire Shadow Realms against him? "Look, ya said ya could send me back, right? So sendin' me back now would be greatly appreciated. And don't call me 'Master'; I ain't a Master and you ain't a slave. If anythin' if you were someone I knew more, I'm sure you'd be a friend."

"_Master,_"Akash pleaded, ignoring Katsuya's command to stop, "_please allow us to care for you for a while. Your condition in not good, and I, along with others, are not happy with it."_

"Akash, Leto, I'm not happy bein' here, so live wit' it." Katsuya stood, crossing his arms and sticking his chin up stubbornly. He side glanced to the other two and his stubbornness melted a little....but not enough for him to go willingly! "And stop callin' me 'Master'!" He snapped, and pausing for a moment. "I ain't movin' until ya get a portal opened for me so I can get back home."

Leto and Akash glanced at each other. Katsuya knew those glances. They weren't good glances; in fact they were really _bad _glances that meant someone's infinite doom. He'd shared those glances with people, and he'd seen others shared them and it always ended up with everyone else pitted against one person.

He really didn't like those glances. "Oh, _no._" Katsuya pushed, dropping his stance and trying to stop himself from letting his instinct take over and running. No, that would be stupid and only get him lost. "I can imagine what yer thinking, and _no._ Don't even think 'bout it anymore."

Both of his enemies looked at him now, and making it quite obvious they also weren't going to just back down. No. Katsuya was _doomed_ and he knew it.

And true to their glances, Leto and Akash ganged up on Katsuya. Katsuya dodged, jumping over the dragon's tail as it tried to wrap around him, then ran circles around them, dodging even the magician's spells and tried grabs. Life on the streets had made him learn a few tricks. And you learn real fast once you get caught--whether it be by gang members or the police.

And finally, after a half an hour of continuous chasing, the two gave up. Katsuya stood, watching the two collapsed beings, hardly breathing hard and a triumphant smile on his face. "That's all ya got? I'd expected more from ya!"

The two looked crossly at him.

"That's because they're men!" Said an out-of-absolute-nowhere high-pitched voice. The next thing Katsuya knew, he was struggling against a vine of _pretty pink flowers_. If he weren't struggling, he'd of sneered his lips in disgust. "See, men can't do nothin' right!"

He looked to the squeaky fiend, the Dark Magician Girl. _Well_..., Katsuya thought, _fuck_.

"Great," Leto grumbled, "Just our luck. We try to do something nice and winde up inflating Chirna's ego."

"Oh, Lety-poo! Don't be such a grump!" Chirna giggled and looked at Katsuya, who looked back with a dark look of defeat. "How are you, Master Puppy?"

"I jus' wanna go home!" He cried. "There isn't a reason for me ta be here!"

"But," Chirna protested, "Master Puppy! You're in poor health!"

"_We've tried that reason; Master isn't listening." _He waddled over to Katsuya and nuzzled his face. His poor, poor master. He could feel the pain and the need _not _to burden them his master was feeling.

"That's because it ain't a good reason!"

"The rest of us think it is." Leto argued, grumbling at dusting the dirt off his cloak, "Why you don't think so is beyond my understanding."

"You wanna know why?" Katsuya struggled. This was ridiculous! What the hell was this vine made of anyways? A giant hairband? He looked at them looking at him expectantly."What?"

"_Aren't you going to tell us, Master_?"

"Don't call me Master! And tell you what?" He grumbles, if only he could grab the knife in the pocket on the inside of his jacket...

"Why you think you bad condition isn't a reason to have people take care of ya!" Chirna huffed, puffing out her cheeks childishly. "Jeebs, you'd think he'd pay attention to himself more."

"We wouldn't have forced him here if he did," Leto pointed out.

"Arg! You're all assholes! I disown the Shadow Realms and all the reside in 'em!" Katsuya screamed, inching his hand more towards the pocket. He was almost there....."It ain't a good reason 'cause I can take care of myself!"

"Pick-pocketing and not bathing or eating right is not taking care of yourself, Jounouchi," Leto stated, "We are wasting time, Akash, grab him and let's go. He needs a bath and some food."

"_Sounds good."_

"No!" Katsuya cried, struggling more as Akash wrapped his tail securely around him. He almost had the knife too! As the magician's poofed away with a few muttered words and Akash took off he cursed, "I hate ya all!"

* * *

Arrrg...I'm not sure, it's my first attempt at a different fandom then Naruto. I know it's not an excuse to be so bad, but really, it doesn't help. Whateve's. If I decide laters I don't like it, I'll make it disappear.


	2. Major Meltage

Weeeeeeeeeeee!

And by the way, it's _**not**_ castleshipping. Seth doesn't get anyone (that I know of, Sorry Seth) and Katsuya has a range of nicknames from Puppy to Kitten.

* * *

"Yeaaaaah. No."

"I beg your pardon?" Leto blinked, looking at Katsuya-- whose stomach was rumbling, his ribs probably sticking out under his shirt, his chops being licked every few moments, his hunger obvious-- who was refusing to eat.

Chirna even face-palmed. Katsuya was being so _unreasonable_. And even though Akash had gone to prepare the bath for Katsuya, he threatened if they bound Katsuya in a place they wanted to make feel like like home he'd eat them. Akash never made idle threats so it ruled out forcing the blond to eat. "Master Puppy, you're hungry, why don't you eat?"

"I ain't encouragin' ya." He said, turning tail and walking out of the dining room and walking to explore more of the castle where he was forced against his will. It was in the sky and fit for a family of _dragons _(read: it was _huge_).

Every hall was explicitly decorated with beautiful wood furniture that were all much much more for dragons' use then his--though Katsuya didn't get why they had wood in a dragon's castle when they breathed fire-- and emeralds and rubies and all other gems one could imagine were threaded all over the place. The walls were painted a creamy-tan color and the tiles on the floor were large, white, polished granite.

In over-all the entire place was breathtaking, large, and very cozy.

He laughed, walking past a wooden door-- made dragon-sized-- noticing that there was a human-sized door built in to it.

"Little Puppy," Leto called, walking out after him, "you need to eat."

"I'll eat when I get home." Katsuya said, ignoring that fact the possibility that his insides were being torn apart by his stomach acid --which from the pain, he wasn't doubting-- and that that food looked _really_ good.

Chirna looked out into the hall at the two, squeezing her eyes shut knowing Leto was going to say something stupid.

"Eat what? You don't have money to buy food, you refuse to ask your friends for help, and you don't really have the heart to pick-pocket someone anymore. _How_ do you expect to eat when you can't even get any food? Besides where's home? You'd only thought of the warehouse just before we'd brought you here, and that's schelduled to be demolished in a week or two! The Kaiba is right, you are a _stupid-mutt_."

The Dark-Magician Girl opened an eye, watching Katsuya unfreeze and glare coldly at the man-magician. It wasn't even directed at her and she still felt a chill; she could only imagine what Leto was feeling despite his hard exterior.

Katsuya's eyes narrowed, before his lips jerked into a smirk and he walked off, "You're humanity only lasts 'till you're hungry enough. Give me a few days, It'll be on da news. 'Pick-pocketing on da rise'."

Leto jumped. His mouth gaped in surprise doing one of those cheesy fish gaping looking. He stuttered, unable to think about what to say. He had not expected Katsuya to talk-back in such a way, he'd expected the blond to bow his head and submit. "U-uuh! Ka-Katsu--"

"**_Leto, shut it,_**" Akash said, entering the hall and waddling towards Katsuya, who was again feeling that giddiness of seeing his favorite duel monster alive and real as well as a certain pain and sadness he felt every time he was with the dragon. The feelings weren't his, so they confused him, but he just put them to the back of his mind. "**_Master, maybe you'll feel more hungry once you bathe?"_**

"I ain't hungry, and I ain't taking a bath." Katsuya frowned, walking cooly past the dragon, but not without sliding his hand down the sleek back scales. "I'm goin' to da library. Ya gotta have sometin' there to tell me how to get back home."

"Master Puppy, please?" Chirna whined, walking into the hall to join the three males. Her eyebrows were knitted and her chin down. Katsuya _really _needed to eat and bathe. "We aren't going to let you back home, so just give in."

"Give in to what?" Katsuya said, "I don't go down without a fight." And he turned the corner. Sure he was going to get lost and lose his momentum later, but for now, his chin was up and he was going to leave with a cool exit.

----------------------

Seto rubbed his forhead. "Does he really have nothing better to do?"

"_Yes, well, my hikari, don't blame him. He thinks you very much dislike him anyways._" The voice in Seto's head pointed.

Seto gritted his teeth as Mokuba watched. He knew the young teen was excited, not because they obviously were going on another adventure, but because he, Seto, was going to actually have to admit he actually _cared _for someone so deeply he had to go find them. Someone not Mokuba.

It of course didn't help that Mokuba had ran in because he heard Seto yell-ranting. Seto never yell-ranted unless it was something _really _bad, usually it was a mutter-rant. However, since it had been yelling, Mokuba had brotherly (aka using blackmail and other such means) demanded all the details.

Stupid brothers.

"Seto, it isn't that bad. Come on. I mean, Jou couldn't leave Domino, right?" Mokuba cheered, patting his brother collaboratively on the back. Seto just needed a _little_ push.

"That's true."

"_Oh, have I forgotten to mention that there was a portal to the shadow realms that had opened and closed today?_"

"And....? This is pointless. A time-waster. I'm going back to work."

"What's pointless?"

"Apparently a portal to the Shadow Realms opened and closed," Seto huffed, "Just continue dilly-dallying with the Motou group, Seth, and if something important happens, you obviously can reach me."

Seto could see the voice in his head sneer. He needed to find a way to block Seth from mind-talking to him. "_I see you fail to notice Kitten was the only one of this little group that played cards _not_ to have a Yami and still powerful skill. He's **spec**_**_ial_**."

And Seto face-palmed. The puppy had most likely been sucked through the portal. Just fan-fucking-tastic.

"What now?" Mokuba pulled, tugging on Seto's sleeve.

"Puppy most likely was pulled through the portal."

"You sure?"

He gave Mokuba a look. "Mokuba, it's as likely that you to have already beaten that game I got you two days ago."

"But I did---Oh." Mokuba frowned. "Jou's such a trouble-maker."

"_Funny, I thought your brother was fond of Kitten,_" Seth said and Seto relayed the message.

"I am!" Mokuba defended. Seto sighed, picking up his coffee off the desk and taking a sip. "But how is Seto going to get laid if Jou is always gonna be in trouble?!"

All the paperwork Seto had been working on for the past _week_ _and a half_ was covered in saliva and coffee.

-----------

Seth chuckled, looking cheery-eyed at the rest of the group staring at him, "Seto's little brother is a treat. Really, all that paperwork ruined because of a concerned little comment."

Yugi, Honda, Anzu, and Ryou all looked him half-expecting him to explain. The others, whether they didn't care or knew he wasn't, continued on. When he just walked past them, they continued as well.

"So where are we goin'?" Honda asked, "We've been walking forever."

"Yeah, and where's Jou?" Anzu followed.

No one really said anything. They just told them they were following the feel of the shadow magic and nothing else.

"Hey," Honda commented again, "We're near Jou's and my base from middle school. We'd come here to get away, we should make a detour there." _To see if Jou's there_, were the unspoken words, but everyone heard them; they were as loud and clear as the rest of the sentence. They wanted Katsuya to be there.

"Might as well. Lead the way, Honda." Atemu motioned. He saw a few of the Yamis began to protest, but just as quickly their Hikaris stopped them

Honda smiled and quickly lead them to a wall of an abandoned storage warehouse. Moving around the building he pushed away a garbage dumpster to show a large break in the wall that everyone squeezed through.

"This is gross." Anzu commented, crawling lastly through the hole into the empty warehouse. "You and Jou used to hang _here_?"

"Yeah," Honda said absently, examining the area. It brought back so many memories. He and Jou had brought back here so many injuries and card games. They'd stay there just they didn't have to go home. "It was our second home 'til we met you guys. It's kinda sad it's scheduled to be demolished."

"On the bright side," Bakura mentioned, walking over to a familiar green back-pack, "We've found where Retriever was at some point and-" he pointed to the small sliver of darkness on the floor, "the portal's placement."

"I fail to see the brightness of the situation." Malik said.

"I as well," said Isis as she walked over and examined the sliver.

Bakura clenched his fists, looking at Ryou who gave him a disapproving look. He frowned and looked away.

"I do!" Yugi said, stumbling over, coolly followed by Atemu. "We'll be able to do something with portal and Jou should return right?"

Seth smiled. A creepy, dark lift of the corner of his lips, but a smile. "Little Pharaoh, it's more likely Kitten had been suck _into _the portal."

Yugi and most of the other non-Yami's all looked at him in horror, thinking the same thing.

_No!_

"Oh, don't look so horrified," Seth said, crossing his arms all-knowlingly, "Beside the fact we have no idea _which_ realm Kitten's in, we know he's in one."

"Which really only makes it worse." Bakura commented, sighing as he felt a bit of guilt and, as he watched Ryou, a bit of self-disrespect he couldn't help.

"What are we going to do?" Yugi asked. They needed to get Katsuya back; Ra only knew what pain or trouble he could be in. It was _Katsuya_ for goodness sakes! He didn't know how to stay _out_ of trouble! "How will we find Jou?"

"I'm sorry, Aibou, I don't know." Atemu frown, feeling Yugi's hurt. He placed a hand the boys shoulder and stood next to him protectively and glaring at Seth who just looked back triumphant. Had Yugi and the others not been there, he'd have stolen Bakura's knife and cut Seth's balls off.

----------

"No! I refuse!!!" Katsuya cried, struggling against Akash's tail that was wrapped firmly around him. The dragon need to let the fuck _go._

"**_Master, we can not force you to eat, however, we will force you to bathe._**"

"No!!!!"

"He's very much like a puppy..." Chirna commented to Leto as they walked behind Akash.

"If you're talking about us being unable to get him to take a bath, I agree." Leto said.

"And," Chirna continued, sticking her index finger up, "he certainly isn't the first to trust."

"Shut it, you two! I'm not a dog!" Katsuya demanded, wiggling some more and losing hope as Akash opened a door and he could feel hot steam hit him in the face. This was not good, they were too close! If he was put in the water he'd not want to get out for a while. It'd make him weak, and how do you fight back when you're _weak_?!

Akash turned around and held Katsuya over a fucking _pool._ "**_Last chance to go in willingly, Master."_**

"No! Stop calling me Master! And put me the fuck down!"

And so Akash proceeded to drop Katsuya into the water. He landed with a loud splash and soon had his head above water, gasping for air.

"Not in the water!" Katsuya yelled. He was still dressed and everything! He looked at the three looking at him, amusement dancing across his faces. He did what any other person in his place would do: he pouted despite the fact the water felt really _really_ good. "Not fair...."

"Master Puppy, since you lost this round, why don't you hand me your clothes and I'll get you something clean to wear," Chirna smiled, somewhat more guilty looking then the two others.

"....fine...." Katsyuya said and he swore he saw Leto and Akash trying not to dance in victory as they swiftly left the room to plan another demise on Katsuya's behalf. It wasn't that big of a deal....

He stripped, but stayed in the water to keep his naked form covered. He handed over his clothes to Chirna who looked expectantly at him. "What?"

"Your underpants."

He looked away sheepishly, laughing nervously. "I-I don't wear any."

She looked surprised at him and smiled. "Okay, then I'll be right back!"

Katsuya watched her leave and relaxed. No, he didn't hate this place enough to run away naked. In fact this place was growing annoyingly pleasent. Not because the others were being _too _nice-- hell, they all had a deep mean streak and he'd just met them-- but because he was really liking this place and starting to not want to leave.

Sure, he'd only been here a few hours, but other then the fact they were forcing their help upon him he felt extremely welcome and--dare he say it?-- cared for. Yeah, his friends cared for him, but he'd always been protecting _them_, or running away with _them_. It was nice having someone trying to protect _him_--Gods knew his father didn't.

Katsuya wondered what his friends were doing right now. Were they making love with their partners? Was Seth grinding down Atemu's nerves? Were they dueling? Were the Yamis planning the take-over of the world? Was Seto working, playing with Mokuba, or-- Katsuya closed his eyes-- masturbating?

He glided over to the side of the 'bath' and found a ledge to sit on so he could lean back and rest his arms on the edge of the 'bath'.

Did Seto masturbate even? Or was it below him? Katsuya only wished Seto would imagine--- He blushed, bringing his thighs to his chest and wrapping his arms around his legs. Funny they were thinner then he last remembered.

"Katsuya?" Chirna opened the door and called in quietly. He turned at looked at her carrying four fuzzy towels and sets of clothes.

"So ya actually know my name? It's my first name, but it's my name." Katsuya smiled.

Chirna walked in barefoot and set the items on a table. "Yes, we just find a fondness one might have for a puppy in you."

"Really? Seth always calls me 'Kit'en."

"That's because cats were very important in ancient Egypt. He may not admit it in any other way, but he has a fondness for you too." She said and pulled up at the hem of her armor.

Katsuya's eyes widen and he blushed furiously, looking away. Was she stripping? "W-what are ya doin'?!"

"I'm getting in the bath with you; so I can make sure there isn't a speck of dirt when I put healing cream on your bruises and such. Don't be so embarrassed, nudity is natural, there is nothing to flaunt or be ashamed of."

"B-but--!" Katsuya protested as Chirna finished stripping and grabbed a few bars, a wash cloth, and jars before heading towards him.

"No 'buts', Leto would be furious if I were to do anything with another man!" Chirna laughed, "Just let me clean you, I have a son, so there's nothing I haven't seen."

Katsuya looked at her, her large-breasts slightly bouncing as she made her way in the pool, "Is Leto your husband or som'thin'? Ya have a son?"

"Yes, Leto's my hubby and, yep, we have a son; thankfully he's away right now or he'd have a fit about you being here, ranting on about how we're his parents but he has to always clean up our messes." She said, she was right there in front of him. She took a wash cloth and rubbed it against a bar before she rubbed it against Katsuya's face. "I feel bad, because I love him so much, but he's right."

Katsuya looked at her and smiled lightly, closing his eyes and unconsciously leaning slightly into her touch, "I'm sure he knows."

Chirna gave him a peck on the unsoapy side of his cheek before rubbing there too. "Would you stand on your knees so I can wash your chest and back?"

"I-I can do it." Katsuya said, wiggling his nose as she wiped over it. What a weird feeling he was getting in the pit of his stomach. It wasn't hunger or lust because he knew what those felt like. There might have been jealousy and loneliness but that wasn't it either.

"No, you can do your waist down; on your knees." Chirna demanded, frowning when Katsuya hesitantly did what she asked. She could count all his ribs, and his muscles were _there _but they _weren't_. His stomach somewhat caved in and his collar was bony not to mention all the bruises and scars he had. She had to stop herself from flinching. "Oh, Katsuya...."

"Yeah?" He said, like this was normal. He knew it wasn't, and his stomach fluttered from the slightly guilty look in Chirna's eyes.

The guilty look turned immediately into a determined one. "Katsuya! When we are done with this bath, you _are _eating!"

"W-wha--"

Chirna grabbed his shoulders and wrapped him in a tight hug. Katsuya blushed, feeling her breasts and taut nipples squeezed between their bodies. He may have preferred men to women, but he knew how to appreciate them still. "_Oh_, I'm going to adopt you and love you and care for you! How could anyone let this happen?!"

"Ch-Chirna!"

"No! I'm so glad Akash told us about you and worried about you! You've done so much for mine and Leto's and Kyran's Master, let us do something for you!"

"I--I---" Katsuya bit his lip and helplessly felt not only Chirna's caring hug and beautiful body against him, but his resolve to go home start to melt away.

* * *

Yay! Mushiness~


	3. Baby Blues

First off, I'm sorry Reizbar-Ookami! Someone mentioned in a review it was like one of her stories and I didn't mean to make it seem that way at _all._ I just really wanted to write a fanfiction that had the Dark Magicians in it and stuff like that! So I'm really _really **really **_sorry about that, I hadn't meant to make it seem that way at all, I feel so bad.

Anyways, on another....more upbeat note, here's the next chappie.

On a diff note, I don't mean and offense to anyone in this chapter, so I'm really sorry if I do, but it's just an expression I swear!

Oh, And I didn't make Zelda games...I just buy them....

* * *

His resolve? What resolve? What is a ''resolve''? As Katsuya took his first bite of the food Chirna had shoved in his face after putting him in his _very_ cush room, his plans to get home took second seat. It wasn't that he _didn't _want to go home, but this chicken just tasted _So_. _Damn. Good_.

Both Akash and Leto stared wide-eyed, curious as to how Chirna got the untrusting puppy to basically eat out of the palm of her hand. They also stared at how much her ego had inflated to the size of the room which was made for a couple of dragons to live in. How did she plan to fit her head through the door?

Katsuya opened his mouth and tipped the plate to his lips before shoveling all the food in and then holding the empty plate to Chirna, whose face at sometime had turned a slightly delicate shade of sickness green. He looked at her, much like a ten-year-old might as he held out his hands for candy, "More please!"

Chirna held her fingers to her lips and smiled softly. "Was it good? Or are you just that hungry?"

"It's delicious!" He smiled. He felt a string of horror and disgust in the pit of his chest and looked at the two standing in the door, who looked horrified and in awe as if they'd never seen anything like it before. He, much like the puppy he was often referred as, cocked his head to the side with wide curious eyes. "What's wrong; why don't ya come in?"

Chirna took the plate and patted Katsuya on the head. He sneered and moved away, "I'm not a dog!"

"**_Yes, because you didn't just scarf down your food like a stray or cock your head like a puppy,_**" Akash remarked, waddling into the room with Leto leaving with Chirna.

"Hey! You're supposed ta be on my side!" Katsuya said, crossing his arms and furrowing his brow in ultimate dismay. If he was Akash's 'Master' why couldn't Akash be on _his _side for once! Sheesh, it was like he was waxing another man's genitals against his will or something.

"**_I am, Master,_**" Akash nuzzled Katsuya's cheek and purred. Katsuya melted and rubbed caringly between Akash's nostril's. The scales were so smooth and dark, he couldn't help but adore them, especially when it was on his baby's body.

Looking at the dragon, it was weird to call him 'his baby' but the card had always meant a lot to him and he treated it like the most important thing in the world. Now that the card was actually alive in front of his face~ He felt that familiar giddiness in him, like seeing his child after its first day of school.

"_**But I also wish for you to be in great form before I spoil you.**_"

"Hey! I ain't yer 'Master'! And who's going to spoil who? 'Cause as long as I can rememba', you were _my _baby!" The blonde defended, tapping lightly on Akash's muzzle in reprimandment.

Akash frown in disapproval. His Master was his _Master_, there were no ifs, ands, buts, cries, or whines about it. Masters were masters to be spoiled. And he was his master's '_baby_'?!?! How degrading! "**_Master! Don't say such things! You are my master and nothing can change that. And in what way am I your child? I'm much older then you are, and we are not of the same species._**"

"You're thinkin' wrong, Akash," Katsuya explained, gripping onto the red, very silky sheets under him. He looked down to his indian crossed legs. He was trying to find the words to explain it, but he couldn't and the tone of voice Akash had used sent a wave of sadness through him. He bit his lip and finally decided the best way to describe it, "Ya--I didn't know of this realm, okay? When I knew as just a card, ya were important to me, I wanted to protect ya. You were my _baby_, not like cryin' 'cause yer frustrated no one understands ya, but like ya were import-- ah screw it. I'm drivin' myself in circles!"

"**_No, Master, please keep going,_**" the dragon ushed gently. He felt Katsuya's frustration and other cloudy emotions pass through his chest and nuzzled encouragingly at the human's chest.

Katsuya pouted, but smiled as Akash's nuzzled rocked him back and made him untangle himself to keep from falling over. There was no way to explain it--or was there? "Ya know tha' way ya feel, like how ya relate me to a puppy? Yeah, it's like that, except you're my baby!"

Akash pulled his head back, thinking it over, before grinning and showing very beautiful, very _very _sharp teeth, "**_I think I get it, Master. Or,_**" Akash purred in merriment, "**_should I start calling you 'Papa'?_**"

Katsuya looked wide-eyed at the dragon before redness made its way from his hair-line to beneath his shirt and farther down. "I-I---ah--I--_!_"

"That sounds _adorable_!" Chirna cried, carrying in a large tray of pure bliss (aka food). "What do you think, Lety-poo? If we adopt Katsuya, the Akash with be our grandchild! How cute would that be?!"

Leto smirked, enjoying it as much as Chirna was, especially since the blonde's face kept getting redder and redder....

"It sounds like a plan," Leto concurred. "I wonder what Kyran would say to having a brother and a nephew..."

"H-hey! Stop makin' plans of yer own accord!" Katsuya said, jumping to his feet only to stumble as his feet sunk into the cushiony bed. Really, it was extremely comfy to lay on, which was _probably_ what it was made for, but it was sure hard to stand on.

"But," Chirna insisted, bringing the tray over to Katsuya and setting it on the stand next to the extra-large-king sized bed, " told you in the bath I was going to adopt you-- and feed you, but that's already being done-- and love you and hug you and care for you---"

"**_I believe Ma-- _**_Papa _**_gets the point,_**" Akash said, settling down and setting his head on the bed. Between the 'Papa' comment, the Dark Magicians' epic insanity, and the dip in the bed from Akash's head, Katsuya's knees wobbled and he flopped helplessly onto the bed.

Katsuya sighed took the tray and put it in his lap to stop himself from making and even bigger fool of himself as he thought this--all of this-- was going to be his doom.

He looked at everyone-- Akash who was also examining him, Chirna and Leto who were babbling out the 'adoption'-- and for some reason felt a bout of relief, as if he was on vacation for the first time in long long time. The food he got was first class and so was his room, decorated with red sheer tapestry everywhere and long deep-red velvet curtains that closed out the brightness of the setting sun, the large bed and range of places to store clothes and other trinkets.

He scarfed down the food a little slower this time, taking everything in more. When he finished, Chirna took it and Leto followed continuing their new conversation about Kyran--who Katsuya found out was their son-- and with his belly full he felt tired so he laid his head on the pillow just to close his eyes for a bit.

As soon as they were closed, though, he was asleep.

---------------------------

It was about midnight and everyone was together at the warehouse; even Seto and Mokuba had joined at this point. The Yamis were all in a circle matra-ing something in Egyptian as everyone else watched.

"_Do you think it'll work_?" Yugi whispered desperately to Ryou.

Ryou looked at him just as desperately, "_I hope! I miss Jou, he's the only one that Bakura can talk knives too, and if I have to listen to one more thing about knives that I don't understand in the first place, I might break down and cry!_ _But...Seth said something about more then one realm, right?_"

Yugi nodded and looked helplessly back at the circle, wishing he could do something, _anything_ to help, "_Yeah, I hope we get lucky and get the right realm._"

"_Even if we get the right realm, we might have to a take a bit to search through it for Jou,_" Malik pointed out, "_and that itself could take years. I hate to say, but I don't think your lucks that good to find him in a couple of hours and quickly be able to bring him back home._"

"_We'll figure out something!"_ Honda said.

"_Yeah, don't worry Yugi!" _Anzu agreed_._

Yugi looked down in shame, "_What are we going to do? I should of been with Jou more, maybe it wouldn't of happened._"

"From what Seth filled me in on about Bakura seeing the mutt and him disappearing, Motou, it wouldn't of helped. He was obviously avoiding you." Seto cut in at regular tone. Mokuba and the others watched the Yami's to see if he'd disrupted them at all and noticed he hadn't.

"_So nothing could of helped?_" Mokuba whispered.

"_I'm guessing not unless you found the root as to **why** and confronted Jounouchi about it,_" Isis cut in, "_Shh, now, I believe they are almost done._"

Truth to what Isis said, the a portal floated stable in the middle of the people circle and the Yamis open their eyes.

"We believe this is the right realm, Aibou," Atemu said, looking for approval from him mini-self.

Yugi smiled and nodded, "Good job! Shall we go?"

The Yamis looked at their Hikari's disapprovingly, except Seth who looked smug at the annoyed Seto.

"It's too dangerous for you guys," Bakura said, crossing his arms and staring them down.

"I agree," Marik said, walking over to his Hikari and placing his hand on his shoulder, "We should also make a plan."

"Okay," Seto said, "All the other new-ages stay along with Mokuba and the rest of us will go."

"Wait! Why do you get to go!?" Mokuba protested. That wasn't fair! His brother couldn't just _leave _him....could he?

"Because I said so, and the rest of you would get in the way." As much as the Yamis hated the way Seto worded it, they all agreed. It was slightly true anyways.

Thus, it started a war between the group.

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After an hour of fighting they decided, Marik, Malik and Isis would stay and watch for and shadow magic, and also Seth, who would take over Kaiba Corp because he was too lazy to actually go (and decided he would get in the way of ''Kitten's and Seto's quality time" he told Seto through mind-speak) and Anzu and Honda would stay incase Katsuya was still here. The other Hikaris and Mokuba won out their side of the fight and were first to drop into the portal.

Seto watched Motou go then, Atemu and as he stood there looking at Seth and telling him the details as Seth protested to just go and if he needed help he'd mind-talk to Seto. Mokuba pulled on his sleeve, grinning triumphantly as he led his older brother to the portal.

Bakura jumped and, holding Mokuba's hand against the younger boy's will, so did Seto.

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Katsuya bolted up, heaving and sweating, guilt piling in his stomach. He fisted his shirt over his heart and looked around the room. He still somewhere in the Shadow Realms at the big castle in the sky. It was where The Dark Magician and his Red Eyes Black Dragon had brought him.

He _wasn't_ in an alley way. He _wasn't_ naked from the waist down, holding a knife and covered in blood. He _wasn't_ a junior high student still in a gang.

He was okay.

He swallowed vomit, reaching under his pillow for the knife Bakura had given him as a Christmas present one year. He _always_ put it under his pillow before he went to sleep at night. Half the time, it was the only thing that made him feel secure enough to sleep, but as he search for it, he couldn't find it.

Then he remember. He'd given the Dark Magician Girl his clothes to be washed. His knife was still in his jacket pocket. And the wallet that had the pant-to-wallet chain thing Yugi had gotten him for his birthday was in his pants.

He crawled to the edge of the bed and stumbled out to the door. He needed his knife. It was second to his Red Eyes card in importance; not because Bakura had given it to him, therefore admitting _friendship _and _respect_, but because that knife had protected him more times then there were numbers in Pi--and he'd been told in school there were a lot of numbers.

He ran to the door and tripped into the hallways. He was still panicky from his nightmare; still heaving and sweating and crying a little.

Where would the laundry be? Katsuya wondered. What time was it? Would it be okay if he woke someone up if he found them?

"Katsuya, Sweety? Are you alright?" Katsuya turned sharply and was face-to-face with Chirna dressed in blue and pink lingerie, ones with a sheer blue top that showed her dusty, tightly drawn nipples very faintly.

"Wh-where's my clothes? T-they have my-my kn-knife."

Her eyes widened and she quickly drew closer, reaching open her arms to give him a hug, but stopped when he flinched away. She retracted, somewhat hurt and understanding. Katsuya was completely out of it. So, softly, she held out her hand to him, "Come'on, take my hand, I'll take you to your laundry."

Katsuya fisted his hand and pulled it close to his chest. Examining her, a back part of his mind, the rational-non-instictive part, told him it was _Chirna_, and the irrational-instinctive part told him she was okay to go with.

He placed his hand in her surprisingly calloused ones. He'd expected them to be soft, but memories of the duels Yugi had used her in reminded Katsuya the magician was tough as a metal baseball bat.

Chirna gently intertwined their fingers together and led him slowly to where his clothes were. They turned a million and one times and it took forever to get there, but when Katsuya saw his familiar green jacket, he let go of Chirna's hand and _dove_ for it, reaching to a pocket he'd patched to the inside of his jacket just for the knife and yanked out the knife and it sheath.

Chirna watched in morbid fascination as Katsuya took the knife out of it's leather casing, and as if in a deep trance, examined it with empty eyes before placing the edge of the blade to his finger and gently cutting himself. Blood blossomed like a morning rose and Katsuya's trembling body slowly stabilized and relaxed.

"Katsuya, are you alright?" She asked again, walking slowly over to him. He looked surprised at her, like he hadn't just been out of it a few seconds ago, like the sweat wasn't making his hair stick to his forehead, or that his shirt was soaked.

Katsuya just stood, smiling-- Chirna notice the full light in his eyes wasn't back yet-- and dusting off himself. "I'm okay...." He trailed off.

Chirna frowned and wondered where Akash was. If Katsuya had been this upset, why didn't Akash feel anything and wake up? If she hadn't woken up for her midnightly bathroom and water break, Katsuya probably would have been lost somewhere in the castle. That would _not_ of been good.

"Come on, let's go back to bed," She sighed, motioned him towards her with her hand and holding him out to reach it. As she held his hand, she felt like she did holding Kyran's hand when he was an innocent five-year-old, just happy to be loved and be by her.

Katsuya looked at her, she was only an centimeter or two shorter then him, but he felt like a small child; and he felt that weird feeling in the pit of his stomach again. Maybe it was guilt, but he was happy. He felt....he didn't know what he felt, but as he examined it, he noticed it was a _good _feeling. One he liked.

Was it love? But he already had someone he...uh....felt for like that: one particular blue-eyed, brunette bastard. But it did feel _kind of_ like that.

Chirna led him to a room that wasn't the one he was staying in. She then proceeded over to the bed that had a very good looking, naked chested, Dark Magician lazily looking at them. He blinked, looking at Chirna, who looked back expectantly. Groaning, he wiggled to the side of the bed. Really, all the stuff he did for her, he should be husband of the year.

"Hop in," Leto said.

Katsuya just looked back and forth between the two before he blushed a brilliant red that glowed radiantly in the moonlit room. "N-no! It's alright, I'll manage my way back to my room!"

"Come on," Chirna giggled, "You can be like a puppy laying between his two masters!"

"I ain't a dog!" Katsuya shouted, "And I ain't a little kid either!"

"Oh, I know you aren't _little_, Katsuya, but just get in the bed and pacify me!" Chirna ushered, and gently pushed him to the bed.

"I hope you don't expect him to get in this bed with _that_ on," Leto said pointed to Katsuya's sweat-soaked shirt. "Give him one of my shirts to sleep in, and a pair of underwear."

The male blonde looked at the female rushing across the room and fetching the items, apparently agreeing it was good idea. "Hey, look, I--really, I---"

"Oh, hush!" Chirna scolded running back over to him and pulling up his shirt, expecting him to hold up his arms for her....but of course he would just stand there looking blankly at her like she was some sort of moron, "Lift your arms, please."

Katsuya got a skeptical look on his face as he let her take off his white shirt and replace it with a much bigger dark green one. When she pulled at his pants, he held on. "Hey!"

"What'd I say in the bath? Come on, I'm getting cranky! You're not easy to deal with a midnight-fourty in the morning!"

Katsuya frown and stepped away. "No!"

"Ohhhhh! You're sooo gonna get it," Leto warned, smiling and yawning. "You'll learn fast, Chirna doesn't like to lose, sleep or games."

"Neither do I!" Katsuya defended and walked towards the door--or at least he was until he had to dodge a vine with pretty pink flowers on it. Part of the vine covered the door, blocking the exit while another part faced him like a bull with it's testicles tied.

When the vine shot at him he ducked and ran past it....to trip on another vine and have the first vine wrap around him. His hand with his knife was free but the other was squeezed tightly to his chest, making him unable to move.

"Rarely do I lose," Chirna said, proudly.

Katsuya smiled, unsheathing the knife that was still in his hand with his teeth and stabbing the vine with a loud "Hiya!". Chirna scream almost as loud as the vine's screech from nowhere as it started to bleed green fluids and dropped him. "I told ya before, I don' go down wit'out a fight!"

Looking at Chirna's face and listening to the vine, Katsuya felt slightly guilty, but he was _not _a dog, and _not _a child; he wouldn't be undressed or treated like one. He glanced over to Leto who was sitting up, giving Katsuya a surprised 'are you retarded or just plain _stupid_' look.

He looked back over to Chirna again but a second too late as a vine had shot out and knocked the knife out of his hand and another wrapped around him again. Chirna stomped over, striping him of his pants and putting on the speedo-shapped underwear, that were actually kinda comfy, and then reaching around to smack his ass. _Hard._

_"Owch!"  
_

"How _dare_ you hurt my vines!? Now, get in bed and don't make a peep about it!" Chirna commanded, pointed to the empty space next to Leto and made the vine let go with a wave of her small wand. Katsuya rubbed his ass and looked at his knife. Chirna made a 'no' sound, like someone would a fucking _dog_ and walked over to the knife to pick it up herself.

Katsuya pouted, but climbed into the bed next to a smirking Dark Magician male who mouth, 'told ya', before he laid back down. Chirna set the knife down with a clank on the nightstand before getting into the bed next to him. She gave him a look to go to sleep and, looking at the door, Katsuya decided he was left no choice.

He laid down his head and watched as both magician's breathing evened as the fell asleep. Katsuya _wanted _to sleep, but that feeling was there. He wiggled a little as if to wiggle it off, but it didn't work.

He examined Chirna and finally wondered if this was what it was like to have a mother.

-------------------

Everyone landed on each other as the portal was poorly place _downward._ Seto was glad he and Mokuba had been the last to enter because their five foot fall was greatly cushioned.

"Stupid Priest Hikari," Atemu cursed as everyone slowly got off of him because he was fast enough to push the other Hikari's away but not to get himself away from being fallen upon and therefore on _bottom_ of the dog pile.

"I bet the retriever would enjoy this," Bakura muttered, rolling off next.

"Enjoy what?" Ryou asked, helping his Yami up.

"The _dog_ pile," Bakura smirked, patting his Hikari on the head as a thank-you.

"Oh, he'll never come out if you keep that up, Thief," Atemu said, smiling just as jokingly, "You've gotta get some treats and say 'here, Jou, here, boy!'."

"You're horrible!" Yugi whined, finally able to help his own darkside up.

"Hey! I know," Mokuba said, "Does anyone have any of those chocolates Jou likes? We could use those as tre---owch! What was that for, Seto?!"

Seto frowned, ignoring the sting in his hand from smacking Mokuba on the back of the head so hard, "Let's go and get this over with."

"Why'd you come anyways?!" Bakura muttered, as he and the rest of the group watched Seto head off into a direction before following, "You don't even like the Retriever...."

"Oh, he _likes_ him," Mokuba said, looking at the sky full of nothing but stars. He'd never seen anything like this in the city and it was gorgeous. He'd have to get Seto to buy an island and not build anything more then a mild vacation home on it.

"Are you sure, Mokuba," Ryou wondered, "Seto pretty much said to Jou's face he hates him."

"I believe him," Atemu said, watching Seto's back as the CEO obviously went into a thinking mode, "The Priest wouldn't waste his time if he didn't."

"Yep, and he certainly wouldn't babble-battle with him if he didn't, either," Mokuba hummed.

"You men all those fights they get into?" Yugi asked, feeling a sort of elation of finding out something good from such a horrible situation.

"Yep. It's so funny, 'cause you can tell when he and Jou's gotten into a fight; he just _glows_ smugness."

"Mokuba, shut up and get--" Seto froze. Mokuba frown. His brother never left anything unfinished and as small and petty as a sentace was...if it wasn't finished something really bad must of stopped him.

"What's wrong Light Priest?" Atemu questioned."Dog fetch your tongue?"

Seto didn't answer just stood there looking still superior but slightly in shock. The group looked at him and walked up to see what's wrong, only to have a bunch of men with bows and arrows point their weapons at them.

"Well," Bakura decided to comment, "Fuck."

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Mornings, Katsuya decided, were much more beautiful here then at...home. He closed his eyes. He had to go back. It was his _home_. Home. Oh, who was he kidding? What _home_? He lived on the streets and he couldn't just crash his friends' houses.

He sighed and opened his eyes, looking over the surrounding forest out to where the floating island dropped off into the sky. He was on the roof; Chirna's vines were still on the door and the magician's were still sleeping. He'd found a ledge on the side of the castle under the window and shimmied over to a tree that allowed him to climbed where he was over the four-story castle.

It was early, _early_ morning, the sun just peeking it's glowing colors into the sky. It looked so much bigger on the island then it probably would of on the ground-ground and Katsuya knew it would be difficult to find something as beautiful as it there too.

He wondered if it was the same time where he was from. Would the sun be rising over the fowl smog and tall buildings? He bet his father would just be getting back from the bar....bars.

There was a nice breeze that blew through his hair and large shirt as he sat there on the edge of the castle roof, his legs swinging back and forth. He was still wearing the PJs Chirna and Leto had let him borrow. The shirt was _huge_ on him, it reached a little below mid-thigh--and he had long legs. It must be big on Leto,also, but then again....Leto was much more filled out then Katsuya was. He wasn't fat, but he had a _nice_, toned body.

Sitting thee doing nothing, he thought it be fun to have an Ocarina or something. He laughed at himself for the thought. He'd loved the Zelda games as a child and when he'd found an Ocarina at an old antique shop, he saved his earnings from doing small jobs for neighbors and such, bought it and taught himself to play. First, it was the Zelda songs of course, but eventually he'd learned them by heart and looked for other composed musics on the library computer.

There was aprt of him serious as he continued to think about the Ocarina. The breeze and light, delicate atmosphere made the perfect fantasy come true. It was only too bad his father, after three years of Katsuya owning and treasuring the instrument, had sold it for a large sum of money he'd quickly spent on alcohol.

A loud roar interrupted his musings, a long with a sudden shaped of blackness entering the sky. Katsuya couldn't stop himself from smiling as Akash flew out. Watching the dragon fly about was breathtaking. This had to be the best morning Katsuya had ever had.

When the dragon glided past him, he caught a hint of surprise on the red eyes as well had his chest. He waved and smiled sheepishly. The wind of Akash's glide hit him in the face a blew the hair from his face.

"**_Master?!_**" Akash said, flying back to him. "**_There you are! We'd thought you'd run away!_**"

"Sorry, no such luck, Akash," Katsuya simply replied. There was a small sense of humor in the situation; running away _was_ something Katsuya would do.

"**_I am happy you had not._**" He said back, after pausing a moment he continued, "**_Chirna is having a fit._**"

"Well, she shoulda took her vines off da door."

Akash gave an expression that if he was human, he would of face-palmed. Katsuya smiled softened and he looked longingly at Akash, "Hey, Akash...later, can I....." He frowned, stopping himself. He was being stupid.

"_**What is it, Master?**_"

"Nevermind. And stop calling me 'Master'!!!" He yelled, jumping to his feet. He wanted to ask Akash if he could ride him later, but...it'd be asking for too much. He'd already eaten some of their food and disrupted many things, like their sleeping patterns. If Akash had other things to do, Katsuya couldn't interrupt them too.

"**_No, _**_Papa**, tell me.**_" Akash smirked, watching the golden haired teen's face go red as well as, Akash noticed, down his legs.

"N-no, let's go back inside."

"**_Not until you tell me._**" Akash sang, nuzzling Katsuya's face--which was much harder then what he thought it would be while hovering.

"No! I refuse! Let's go!"

"**_I refuse as well until you tell me._**"

And thus began the seventeen minute war until Katsuya finally gave up and sat on his ass. He wasn't going to ask Akash and Akash wasn't going to leave until he told him. So, being the one not using his energy hovering, Katsuya decided this was the way to go until Akash gave in.

It was working too...until the start of his downfall when Akash mentioned breakfast.

* * *

Yay! A lot of words! I proud, I proud!

I hope you enjoyed this chappie--squee--


	4. Necessary Nevers

Ho~kay! Yaya, it's what peeps call the next chappie...okay, lies. People call them chapters, but ya know what? I call them chappies and that's all you need to know.....

* * *

The older brunette woman smiled and placed a cup of tea in front of Seto. "I'm really sorry for the hunter's behavior, they really have the best for the village at heart. Even I admit, your clothes make you a bit suspicious."

"It's all right," Yugi said for the_ fifteenth_ time, "We understand."

"Oh, but still, " Said the other girl, an older blond teen with large breasts and calloused hands, "When they saw you were unarmed they could of put their weapons down."

"I know a few people that would act the same way," Ryou said, smiling and sipping his cup of herbal tea. It was sweet, warm, and delicious.

"Hey," Bakura said, waving the females' attention, "Do you know where I can sharpen my knives? I've got some ball to chop off."

"Bakura!!!" Ryou shouted and very quickly looked over to the two horrified females, "I'm sorry, he's always like this, but unless you do something terrible he's harmless!"

The looks the girls gave them made it obvious they didn't feel better about it. Ryou sighed and buried his face in his arms on the table. Yugi knitted his brows worriedly and looked over to Atemu, who shrugged and took a sip of his own.

"Excuse me?" Mokuba piped up. Maybe a little change in conversation would help ease the tension Bakura had created....even though the thief was smirking smugly. Man, was that man evil. "Have you seen a strange blonde boy in clothes kind of like ours. He has tan skin---"

"And reminds you of a mutt," Seto finished. He was tempted to take another sip of the tea because the sweetness made his mouth dry and sticky, but he hated sweet teas. They were just so....._sweet_. Ulck.

"Umm....." The blonde girl said, "I don't believe we have....." She looked over to the older woman who shook her head.

"No, we haven't."

"Oh...." Yugi said, lowering his head. Mokuba looked over to Seto and was somehow able to catch the disappointment flash in the blue eyes. Ryou grabbed Bakura's arm and felt it tense. Atemu frown and looked toward his Hikari. A heavy spell of sadness and awkward tension hit the room.

The two girls looked at the group. The brunette woman smiled softly and walked to the room entrance, urging the blonde to follow, "We haven't been out in town much lately, so there might be a chance he's here; he might be at another INN. You should go an look, just remember that your room are here and how to get back.

Most of the male group brightened and shot up thanking them, rushing out of the room. The more sophisticated (aka: able to hold their excitement in better) followed suit with quick steps and glides. They had a blonde to try and find.

--------------------

"Are ya sure?" Katsuya asked again as he got on the saddle they'd strapped around Akash's lower neck.

"**_Yes, Master. Positive._**"

"I actually think I'd rather your thoughts be negative. And don't call me 'Master'!"

"Oh, shush!" Chirna said, mildly impressed Katsuya could clamor onto the saddle, though a bit awkwardly, all by himself. It wasn't an easy feat for her or her family, and they certainly couldn't get on alone their first times riding Akash. "Katsuya, you'll enjoy this and you asked."

Katsuya sighed in relief when he'd finally managed to sit properly on the saddle. Climbing up a dragon using the rope attached to the saddle made him feel like one of the students on some sort of rope climb in gym; at least he had a wall. "I tried ta take it back....it's just Akash refused ta let me eat until I asked."

"**_And I'm glad I did; I've been stuck in this castle for three weeks, other then to pick you up. I will thoroughly enjoy this flight_**." Akash paused, bending his neck and looking the blonde sitting on his back, "**_Are you ready?_**"

"I don't think he'll ever be completely ready for his first ride, Akash," Leto said 'encouragingly'. Katsuya's stomach knotted in a not-so-good way. This was so not good. Why did he want to ride Akash again? Oh, right, because Akash could fly and the sky looked so....enchanting.

That's it, he was no longer looking at the sky. No. He banned himself from it right here, right now. He'd gotten in trouble looking at the sky before when he wished for someplace to stay after he was kicked out and look where it'd gotten him now: in trouble in some other Shadow Realm.

"Thanks, Leto, I feel so confiden' now," Katsuya said. He gulped and held onto the saddle for dear life as he felt Akash's body tense underneath him and jerk upwards with his wings. His thighs unwittingly tightened and he squeezed his eyes before they started to glide into the sky.

Shit shit shit shit _shit_. He was going to die. He couldn't die! He had a sister to protect from men and friends and his virginity for crying out loud! Couldn't he at least lose that before he died!? He hadn't even told the guy he liked that he liked him! He didn't have to lose his virginity--_forget_ his virginity-- but it would be nice to tell the guy!

"**_Papa, open you eyes_**," Akash soothed, they glided through Katsuya and the blonde--feeling the wind rush through his hair, his body feeling light-- hesitantly opened an eye to open his other in wonder. Sure, he was still holding onto the saddle for dear life and his thighs were going to hurt from squeezing so much, but, Goddess, it was so beautiful.

The clouds were like a floor of fluff under them, big and white; dew hit his face as they sliced through a rare cloud above the others and back into the clear blue.

His heartbeat, slow, very very slow, was felt through his entire body, heard in his ears like it was a soothing drum. Like he was alone in this amazing quiet place. With the wind rushing by his ears, it was anything but quiet, but the way he was memorized, he couldn't hear it.

"Wow....." He said in utter awe. He wondered how high they were, how far they had gone because it pleasantly felt like they were going nowhere; that this here, was everywhere. "This....this is amazing...."

"**_I agree_**." Akash said, lips curling, "**_Are you...glad?_**"

"Yeah...."

Akash chuckled. Katsuya was completely out of it. He flapped his wings and dove beneath the clouds, feeling both Katsuya's excitement and fear as they looked down on the small village on the earth and the fields of forest that surrounded it.

Thinking about it, he'd have to take Chirna shopping out here soon so they could get stuff for Katsuya and he'd go hunting to stock the winterbox for food for himself. He was getting low on his meat. He'd gotten enough to last a long while three weeks ago and he'd gone through it slightly slower then he'd thought; a lot of it was tossed after being found rotten.

Akashe zoomed down, his stomach almost touching the top of the forest. He got an idea when he saw the large lake that was the major water source for the village they'd passed. His stomach knotted, he couldn't wait to see Katsuya's reaction. Sure, it was going to be mean to suddenly flip over without giving his master any warning, but he wanted to see what the blonde would do.

When he got close enough to the lake he spun his stomach to the sky, closing his wings slick against his body and glided down the lake. He'd have expect Katsuya to start yelling and possibly fall off, to say he was surprised when the blonde did nothing but give a gasp before tightening his legs and letting one hand off the saddle to slice the water would be an understatement.

Then it was pretty obvious, the blonde was a natural rider.

He flipped back over and flew back into the sky, feeling a slight shiver of disappointment from both himself and Katsuya.

"Akash, can we do that again?" Katsuya asked, experimentally letting to of the saddle with his hands to lean forward and hugging Akash's neck.

"**_Enjoyed that, did you? Yes, we will later; Chirna's probably wondering where we are, we've been gone an hour already_**."

"Awww, not cool...." The blonde said as he sat up again, his thighs still tight and tense against the side of the saddle. The time went by so fast; it certainly didn't feel like it'd been an hour already.

"**_I'm happy you had fun,_**" Akash chuckled, turning around and sliding through the air back to the castle.

------

When the two got back, Chirna blasted them with curiosity as to where they went, what they did; and after Katsuya ungracefully fell to his ass trying to get off the saddle, he answered her questions with just as much vigor.

He stood...at least he tried to before he fell back onto his ass because his legs were so shaky. As he predicted, his thighs hurt like crazy monsters trying to dig through his legs with pickaxes.

"Hahaha! Held on a little to tight, huh?" Chirna said, helping Katsuya up and supporting him until Akash wrapped his tail around Katsuya and carried him inside.

"Well, after the time Akash turned upside down, I wasn't taking any chances!" Katsuya said, grinnning like a madman--hell he felt like one. He'd just rode a dragon! And didn't die!....but he wasn't going to tell the guy he liked he liked him. No, he had his sanity back...for the most part, anyway.

"Ha, I remember him doing that to me," Leto said, joining them with a glass of water. Akash lowered Katsuya who took it and gulped it down. He hadn't even realized he was thirsty! "I then proceeded to cast a spell on him that made everything he tasted and smelled be rotten eggs."

"Sound gross," Katsuya sneered and pat the tail wrapped around him, " I forgive you Akash."

"**_Oh, good,_**" Akash stated sarcastically and rolled his eyes, "**_I wasn't sure I could sleep at night from feeling so much guilt_**."

Katsuya then smacked the spot he'd just pat, "Bastard."

Chirna and Leto laughed at the two, who started a playful babble-battle of sarcasm.

"Come'on you two, let's get the saddle of Akash and eat lunch," Chirna suggested, smiling at the two--who, mind you, looked at her with same exact happy-hungry look.

"O**_K_**!" They said together.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Any luck anyone?"

"No," the group said in a dreary off-sync chorus.

It was five in the afternoon and the group was exhausted after being up and awake thirty-eight hours and counting. Ryou was asleep on Bakura's back, Yugi was leaning sleepily against Atemu, and Mokuba was wiping the sleep from his eyes and holding on tight to Seto's hands.

The brunette woman smiled sympathetically at them and ushered them off, "Go to bed, you'll probably do better once you've gotten a bit of sleep, dears. Lunch will be served at one tomorrow; hopefully you'll be awake by then."

The still awake portion of the group thanked her and trudged to their small rooms. Yeah, the sun still owned the sky, but bed sounded better then heaven. The INN woman was right anyways, they'd be able to concentrate better with sleep.

Seto, one who was used to hard work and little sleep, frowned wide awake. He looked over to Mokuba. The poor thing was doing his best to stay awake and not drift off where he was standing. "Alright Mokuba, let's get up to bed," he commanded and pulled the boy to the stairs to walk up to the third floor where their rooms hid.

"Wh--aaaaaaahaw--t are you going to do?" Mokuba asked and followed the excitement of '**_OMG_** _sleep_!' that rapidly repeated itself within his tired mind. There would be a bed and covers and a bed and pillows and a bed!!! Right now that new video game he'd been begging Seto to buy for him for weeks couldn't excite him this much.

"I'm going to go exploit the village," he replied swiftly. He was aware of the others following them up the stairs, and the fact Yugi had finally been able to climb upon Atemu's back, so he wasn't going to boldly say he was going to look more for Katsuya. Sure, everyone was dead men-walking, but he wasn't going to take the chance.

_How do you do this?!?!?!_ Seth shouted in his brain. Seto flinched, walking up the last three steps before walking over to his room and unlocking it.

"What did you do now?" He hissed back, helping Mokuba undress. Mokuba looked tired and confused at him. Seto shook his head at him that he wasn't talking about him.

_This--This thing!!!!! It keeps ringing! I can do computers, but this portable talking unit is driving me to insanity!!!!_

Seto pushed Mokuba to the bed. The boy practically ran to it and before his head hit the pillow he was in a light fit of snoring. Seto smiled endearingly at him and left the room a few minutes later after he was positive all the other were probably asleep in their own rooms, closing the door with a soft click.

He didn't need the others to figure out completely he actually cared. "It's called a cell phone, just flip it open and start talking."

_To who?!_

"Whoever called you!" He hissed, walking back down the mile of stairs. 'Why were there so many steps? And why were they so damn steep?' he mental cursed.

_Well...you don't have to be so snappy....._

Seto sighed. He was glad he could have some time to himself; of course his stupid Yami would ruin it. He waited and relaxed when his Yami said no more. That was good, he didn't need the villagers think he was insane because he was talking to himself.

He took the rest of the steps one at a time and passed the blonde, who smiled flirtatiously at him and he ignored her, and a familiar looking cloaked man on his way out. He frowned, he obviously needed relaxing time if he was seeing _familiar _people and plus, he had a puppy to find.

----------------------

"You'll love Charlotte! She's a nice brunette woman who runs the INN I send my mail to be picked up from. She's like an older sister to me! And there's her daughter Cheri, whose sweet, especially if she thinks you're cute! Though she can be a real witch at times too...." Chirna said, fixing her helmet on her head and waving around her petite wand, dressed in her regular blue and pink armor battle garb.

"Are you sure about this?" Katsuya asked, hopping around trying to get his second black leather boot on; the blasted thing wouldn't slip over his damn heel! He was debating if he'd go barefoot--which he ruled out after the fight to get the first boot on--- or cut off his foot. He yanked, hard, and the boot slipped on and the force made him lose balance and fall back onto his tailbone. Just peachy. His thighs and butt hurt from riding Akash earlier and now he had to deal with a sore tail bone? Only he would be unlucky enough.

"Of course! You need to get out, you've been stuck here in the castle!"

"...I was on Akash earlier and I was only forced here only_ two_ days ago."

Chirna frowned at Katsuya's brutal truthfulness. He may of had a good argument, but she wasn't going to let him win! "I'm you mother and I said so! And don't even _think_ of going to Daddy!"

Katsuya looked at her, stunned, before turning a really vibrant shade of red and covering his mouth while turning away to hide his face. Did she really? Surely not! But the more he thought of it, the more of the weird feeling he got.

Chirna looked at the blonde, who had a longing puppy face that was a million shades of red. So she babbled on trying to make him feel better, "Well, not that you can go to Daddy since he's running around with Akash. Oh, Leto makes such a good Grandpa to Akash, doesn't he? Taking him places and spending time with him!"

It only made Katsuya even more lost. When Chirna realized it, she shut her mouth and wiggled a bit. The look on Katsuya's face made her feel heart-broken; especially since he obviously didn't remember having a proper parental unit taking proper care of him and the feeling was obtrusively foreign to him. His brows were knitted and he looked so _sad_. So _lost_.

Sighing in defeat, Chirna linked arms with the puppy-blonde--even though said male was not looking her in the face--and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Alright, let's go. When need to get you clothes that actually fit; Kyran's and Leto's are to big for your small frame."

Katsuya shifted a bit. It was true the two magician's clothes were way to large. He had on one of Leto's lounging shirts, a big creme shirt like on a pirate in a movie and soft brown leather pants that were _Chirna_'s that fit him. The pants were definitely female style, a bit tighter then what a male would wear, and although they were comfy and fit him like his skinny jeans back in Domino, it kinda weirded him out they were owned by a person that often referred to herself as his mother. If he didn't like being a male, he would have wondered if it would have felt so awkward if he were female.

Chirna smiled at him and he looked meekly back at her. "You ready?" Chirna asked, waiting for Katsuya's nod of approval before, with a wave of her small wand, she poofed them to a room.

Katsuya blinked, expecting more magic smoke to float about at their entrance like in mangas and movies and for them to get here to take a bit longer, but it was boring, as if he'd only taken a step forward. Not only that, they weren't anywhere but in an empty room.

"Not what you expected? Sorry," Chirna chimed, walking towards a door and dragging Katsuya by the hand with her. When she reached for the door it opened by itself. Katsuya went wide-eyed, like the Sorcerer of Dark Magic that was standing right in front of him did, as they stared at each other. It seemed to take a few minutes but, the Sorcerer's eyes narrowed at he looked at Chirna.

Chirna paled, obviously knowing the man and not feeling very secure seeing him and his armor and cloaked self holding his magic staff. "_Mother,_" he said in a scolding voice and Katsuya instantly knew who it was. In a way it made sense in Katsuya's mind--seeing as how Yugi often sacrificed the two magicians for the sorcerer--but in a round about way, he's never expected it.

"Kyran?" Katsuya asked, taking in the intimidating figure. No wonder Chirna felt so bad about him having to help her so much, he had the aura of a good father all in his own. Even Katsuya could tell that. The man stood with spinal straightness, protectiveness, and care in his posture as he scolded his mother. "You're Chirna and Leto's son."

"Your brother!" Chirna chirped, seemingly okay with suddenly being faced with her very adult son now; the one who hovered about a foot above her in deadly height and had narrow eyes that Seto often had when grudgingly letting Mokuba go somewhere with Katsuya and the others. "You're back early, Sweetie!"

"Don't you dare go all cute and motherly on me, Mother. I can't believe you! I go away for six months and this is the trouble I come home to? More importantly how am I supposed to fix this mess?!" Kyran hissed, stomping his staff on the ground and frowning his brow. He was _ticked_.

"You're not supposed to!" Chirna said, pulling the silent and stunned Katsuya with her, and was soon followed by her birth son. They walked into the hall past a number of doors before reaching a staircase as Chirna continued on. "Besides, he's only been here two days. We need to get him healthy before we release him."

Sadness struck through Katsuya as he remembered why he was here in the first place. He wasn't supposed to be here. Hell, he didn't even feel he deserved to be here because the place was too nice for--as Seto Kaiba would put it-- a mutt like him: dirty, scrawny, and abandoned. There wasn't a guarantee Katsuya wouldn't turn around and bite a hand if he felt threatened. "But he's right, Chirna, I should be gettin' 'ome."

"See, even _Pupples_ agrees with me!" Kyran said, reaching out and grabbing Chirna's arm.

Chirna twirled around to speak her mind. She may not be the brightest fire in the woods, but she would not be talked to like that--and not allow Katsuya to get any more into the depression he was sinking into faster then a worm in quicksand-- by her own son.

Only Katsuya beat her to it.

"'Pupples'? Really?" Katsuya whined, exasperated. "'_Pupples_'? Oh, God, if da others heard tha' one..." Katsuya couldn't even to begin to imaging the horrors _that_ nickname would bring him. They would laugh, for sure, and Bakura would _never_ let him live it down. _Never_.

The thought mortified him.

Kyran turned a modest shade of red, looking away from Katsuya and his mother, who hid it behind her hand, was giggling evilly. She hadn't seen her son so embarrased since he walked in on her and Leto having no-no time three years ago. She'd _never_ forget that horrified face. Though, it was probably more from the fact that her and Leto just kept going. Oh, the pleasures of being a mother with a sexy husband.

"Sorry," Kyran apologized after a few moments of following them down the stair case in awkward silence, "But everyone seemed to have their own name for you, I was fully unable to control myself."

"What he neglects to tell you," Chirna said, "was that he was a bit tipsy when he made it up."

Katsuya pouted, puffing his lips out and making a silly, mock-angry face. Only he would get all the horrible nicknames. 'Kitten', 'Dog', 'Mutt', 'Retriever', 'Master Puppy', and now '_Pupples_'. If it weren't so ridiculous, he would have cried out in anguish.

"Fantastic it stuck, ain't it?" He stated sarcastically, giving Kyran a half-hearted glare. "You could've come up wit' one sober, y'know."

"Yes, but I like 'Pupples'," Kyran stated, straightening up a bit. So what if Katsuya didn't like his nickname; he didn't like the other ones either!

"So do I!" Chirna smiled, "Oh! Charlotte!"

An older brunette woman spun around and smiled sillily, looking about five years younger. "Oh Chirna! It's been a week _already_?"

"Oh, you!" Chirna mocked backed.

"Oh and Kyran, back soon I see," Charlotte winked at him and turned her gaze on Katsuya. He stood there, squeezing Chirna's hand a bit uneasily, like a shy five-year-old, and smiling awkwardly back. "And who is this?"

Katsuya held out his free hand oafishly infront of him and introduced himself, "I-I'm Katsuya Jounouchi, a lot of people call me Jou or some nickname that has to do with dogs."

Charlotte brow furrowed at the familiarity of the name but couldn't place it, but her crinkly brown eyes warmed at him as her lips curved beautifully into a bigger smile. "Well," She said, shaking his hand, "Welcome to my INN."

"Mother," A big breasted blonde glided into the room, "The new guests, except for the hot blue-eyed bruney, are all fast asleep!" Her head snapped towards the threesome talking to Charlotte before she'd entered. Her free gaze traveled viciously up Kyran as she usually did, then to Katsuya who immediately caught her attention as _cute_. "And who is this cutie pa-tootie?"

Katsuya blinked, pointing to himself as the blonde from the INN nodded her head sweetly.

"This is Katsuya, Cheri," Chirna smiled, turning around and hugging the bashful blonde, "And isn't he?"

"Ooh, yes," Charlotte said, chuckling as she watched her daughter google over another male. "Very cute."

"Uh-uh--thank-you...?" Katsuya shifted. This was odd. Most people looked him over, but left him alone; all this attention frazzled him into insecurity.

"Relax," Kyran said, putting his hand on Katsuya's shoulder. Katsuya was stiff looking, but feeling the tenseness and large amount of unnourished body beneath his full hand shocked him. No wonder his mother wanted to keep him here. Suddenly Kyran wasn't so against the idea either. Katsuya really did need some love and lots and lots of food to fill him out more. _Really _needed it. "They may be female, but they won't attack until you threaten their patients or their kin."

Katsuya laughed a little at that, "I dunno, I'd seen a few females get pretty vicious during some certain times of the month."

"We can hear you," Chirna scolded, lightly bopping Katsuya and Kyran over their heads. She turned back to Charlotte with her original target in mind, "So, about my mail...?"

"Oh!" Charlotee blathered, "Give me a moment to fetch it!"

Cheri smiled, opening her arms and pressing against Katsuya in a overwhelming hug, unhappy to feel his skinniness but letting it go for the second to take in the feeling of the boy.

Katsuya was frozen in panic. He had to stop himself from knocking out Yugi everytime he was glomped by the boy, and he knew him; having someone he'd met only minutes ago and had no time to argue with (or warm-up to) made his instincts to fight back and pin down shoot through the roof. He squirmed frigidly, constantly repeating in his head to not attack, not to fight back, it was only a hug.

If it weren't for Chirna, who tickled Cheri off of him, he would have lost.

"Careful," Chirna warned Cheri playfully, "He might attack you!"

"I'm not sure that's too much of a bad thing," She giggle and winked. Kyran held his forehead and sighed, obviously used to Cheri's flirty lifestyle; he just didn't think she should push it on Katsuya who, he'd noticed between his parents ramblings and seeing him while on the battle field, obviously protected himself and others from rabidly violent things then others protected him at all.

"Here, you go, just a letter from Kyran who is here right now," Charlotte said, walking into the room and handing the lonely envelope to Chirna.

"Oooh," Chirna cooed to her son, "You sent me a letter? That's so sweet!"

"Get over it, Mother," Kyran commanded, but smiling sweetly to her. He obviously loved her as much as she loved him and Katsuya felt a strike of envy slice through him like probably what his first fuck would feel like. Like he was being ripped in two, except this was more emotional then physical pain, despite the hollowing in his chest.

"I'm sorry, but can we go get me some clothes, I kinda wanna see da village," Katsuya whispered. He didn't feel comfortable there.

"Of course, of course!" Charlotte laughed, "go, go. The market will close in two hours, you better hurry on up!"

"Good luck!" Cheri said, waving to them as the threesome left the room and then out of the INN.

The street hustled and bustled with women and men doing chores and shooping as well as the many marketing boothes doing their best to sell as much as possible beofore they packed up and left. Even children wove through the crowds like playful snakes in a lively garden. Katsuya had grown up in a city with shops everywhere and people talked on their cell phones oblivious to the rest of the world. It was so personal there, but here....here, people talked to eachother, smiling and laughing with eachother, like everyone knew everyone. It was so lively and exciting, Katsuya's heart raced, forgetting the loneliness of a second ago and desperately wanting to join everyone.

He grabbed Chirna's hand like an excited child himself and dragging her over to a stand selling stone statues. They were breathtaking and he had to stop himself from pointing out the purity white stone dragon with beautiful blue water colored gems for eyes and the other that looked like Akash as well as a few other monsters that were familiar to him. The he'd dragged her to another stand and another.

Kyran followed and commented on a few things as they stand-jumped. Chirna smiled and encourages Katsuya who explored everything like a curious child; picking everything up with his eyes bright and complete and utter awe at everything. Hell, he felt like a kid, or what he supposed a kid would feel like. His dad had never bought anything for him. Hadn't taken him to a candy store or any toy store. If he window shopped and saw something, he couldn't excitedly show his dad--his dad would tell him it was a waste of money and proceed to waste his own money on tabacco and alcohol.

Looking at one of the clothes stands, Chirna and Kyran holding up shirts and pants for him to see if he'd like them--although he felt really guilty about Chirna paying for him and tried to wiggled out of anything but the cheapest stuff they had and failing-- he though he'd saw someone familiar from the corner of his eye, but when he turned his head and focused where he'd saw the blue-eyed brunette, there was no one there.

Sudden longing pulled at his chest. Not that it mattered. Seto would never want him. Seto would never be there, or even help look for him if he was lost forever. But....Katsuya really wanted to see him. He wanted to see the others too, but....he _really_ wanted to see _him_.

"Pupples?" Kyran asked, "You okay?"

"Y-yeah....I think I just had too much excitement in one day and my legs and ass are killing me from riding earlier."

"Riding...?"

"Yeah! He rode Akash earlier!" Chirna said, holding up another pair of light, soft brown leather pants, "How are these?"

Katsuya looked at Kyran who was probably going to start asking questions--it was one of the ways someone could tell the two were related, the way they asked questions and the way they took care of anyone--- about his ride, and back at the shirt Chirna was wearing and distantly answered her. "It's...okay."

----------------------------------

Seto just about pulled his hair out as he walked back into the INN. The market had closed, and although he'd asked a lot of people, no one had seen a blonde boy in strange clothes beside Yugi and Atemu from earlier. Tomorrow they'd really have to buy new clothes for themselves so the could blend more, the strange looks he'd gotten told him that he scared people.

Fantastic, what about money?

Bakura could probably steal something, but even Seto would feel guilty if he'd even mentioned it to the theif. The people of the village really were nice. They were vibrant and impersonal unlike back in Domino. It was....nice. It wasn't cutthroat, it was more like a vacation with a treasure hunt.

"Have a good night Chirna, Kyran! And it was nice to meet you Katsuya!" The big breasted blonde called up the stairs.

Seto's brain stopped working, but he'd heard a reply with Katsuya's, the actual, real, blonde puppy hisself's, voice and all hell broke loose in his mind. He ran past the blonde female and ran up the stairs hearing voices on the second floor. He chased them down, slamming his feet as fast as he could as he saw a door close. He stopped at it, his heart pumping as he slammed the door open to be met with an empty room.

"How...?" he asked himself. "He was right there!"

He couldn't believe it! There was no possible way that Katsuya could be there one moment then disappear! Well....if it was Katsuya.

He closed the door, more humanely now and walked down the stairs to find the blonde INN female. She had to know something. She stood at the bottom of the stairs, still shocked, where the brunette had last seen her. He looked almost helplessly at her.

"Katsuya.." He said. The female snapped back to reality and looked at him "Did he have blonde hair and remind you of a puppy?"

"Yeah..." She said, unsure, looking confused at him, but as she thought of the blonde she got more coherent thoughts forming, "He was cute, but really skinny, like he wasn't fed enough. and he was outgoing but shy."

Seto's stomach dropped. It _was_ his puppy. "Do you know where he is? Where he went?"

The INN keeper pointed up, "Akash's castle in the sky. Do you...OH! He's who your groups been looking for?!" She cried in dibelief. "But they won't have any contact with us for about a week if they rember to get their mail!"

"Cheri, stop shrieking," The older brunnett woman scolded, walking into the room.

"Katsuya was who they were looking for!" She defended, throwing her arms above her head. Charlotte's head snapped to Seto and she looked to him wide-eyed.

"Oh dear...." Charlotte said placing her fingers to her lips before her eyes brightened with an epiphany, "Kane's coming tomorrow!"

"Kane..." Cheri said, thinking it over, "Yeah! But I bet Akash would hate you forever, he's forbidden Kane to visit him unless it was an emergency."

"He'll just have to deal. Besides, it's just because Kane tried to mate him everytime he see's him." Charlotte looked at Seto, "Kane will take you and your group tomorrow."

Seto must of had a confused look on his face because Charlotte started to explain. "Kane's trying to get away from his parents for a while since they demand he mate with someone, and they aren't fond of Akash and he's the only one Kane will ever think of mating, but Akash doesn't appreciate being taken then almost mated and therefore has outward disdain for Kane."

"Although it's obvious he like's Kane, too."

Seto still looked ta them questioningly.

Charlotte put a hand on Seto shoulder and pushed him to the stairs. "Go to bed; you'll meet the Blue-Eyes White dragon yourself. Tomorrow."

* * *

Woots woots man~ Excited. I get to make a horny blue-eyes dragon next chappie! It excites me! Anyways, hoped you enjoyed this....to the EXTREME! Yeah, Baby, YEAH!


	5. Exiled Expectations

He kind of missed Bakura. Sure Katsuya missed the others and Bakura could be a little....offhanded, but he was like an older brother to Katsuya. Many times when Ryou kicked out Bakura for the night (which happened more then Bakura would have liked) and Katsuya could slide away from his father, they'd meet at the park in between where they lived and hung there. They'd bonded, talking about knives, their old lives before the others; it was sometimes scary how much he was like Bakura in middle school, being in a gang and stealing and all.

Bakura didn't know about his father since Katsuya kept that a secret, but when Katsuya would come to the park upset or depressed, Bakura would hug his shoulders and boink him on the head, telling him to 'Cheer up, Dumbass'. At one point in time, Katsuya had told him about how people ('from his gang days' he'd say instead of the truth that his father had tried to gamble him away) tried to go after him and Bakura gave him a switchblade knife -- his knife from long ago Egypt he stole back from a museum, 'because', Bakura had claimed about his knife, 'it was _his_, dammit, and it was to be used!'--that Katsuya kept under his pillow at night and saved himself many times with it.

Katsuya took good care of Bakura's knife, too. Bakura showed him how to sharpen it and clean in all the small spaces inside the triggers and the beautiful Egyptian carvings in the gold of the handle. Katsuya did it on how often he used it. If he didn't use it, he'd clean it once a week, if he did, he'd clean it every time or every two days depending how dirty it got and what he used it for. The knife had saved his life once, more then once, but it really help him this one time.

A group his father had gambled him to was different from other groups his father had dealt with. They were good and not easily dissuaded by Katsuya's street tactics. They chased him and cornered him. They stripped his lower half ready to take him, but he got his knife and killed everyone of them. It was a nightmare and feeling he'd never forget. Bakura knew about it, and Ryou might of, because he'd called Bakura at Ryou's house from a payphone close by, crying and shaking, covered in blood and thankful no one was around at this time night, holding onto Bakura's knife. Bakura rushed too him with clean, blood free clothes and took care of him. He'd helped dispose of the bodies where he didn't think anyone would ever find them before everyone had passed away and was protected form the unfair law and took him back to Ryou's where he told him to bathe and eat.

Ryou was up, watching Katsuya do everything trembling and zombified. He didn't ask questions then, but Katsuya didn't know if he had later and if Bakura would have answered them.

Katsuya leaned his head back, bumping it lightly on the headboard. He sat in his bed, the sweat from reliving the nightmare in his sleep was drying cold and sticky on his skin. He trembled, holding Bakura's knife to his chest and letting the tears surge silently down his face and dropping lonely onto the sheets. He was okay. He was at Akash's castle in the sky with Chirna, Akash, Leto, and now Kyran. He couldn't call Bakura, like he usually did, and have him tell him stories about his thievery in Egypt, but he was safe, in an entirely different realm then his father and the corpses that haunted him.

_Master...Are you alright? I am have trouble feeling you._

Katsuya jumped, looking around his room for Akash and not finding him. Odd, since the dragon was huge.

_I am talking to you telepathically. This cut-off happened the other night as well. Is there something we are doing to close yourself, Master?_

"'Tel-telepathically'?" Katsuya stammered, wiping the tears from his eyes. Akash could do telepathy?

_Yes, but only with you, since you are my master. I feel what you feel and you can do as such also._

"What do ya mean? 'Feel what I feel'?" he asked, tightening his grip on the knife nervously. Could Akash read his mind and see all the horrible things in there? The past, the fantasies, and all those other embarrassing things he had hidden there he never wanted anyone to know about.

_Have you ever felt a emotion in your chest that was foreign to you, but not?_

Katsuya wiggled a bit and sniffled, wiping a few more stray tears from his face, "Yeah, like a horrified feeling when I was eatin'."

_That was me. Have you ever seen yourself stuff your face? It's not an appealing sight._

Katsuya laughed, rubbing his teary eyes some more. He felt a bit of relaxation as he did, and going by what Akash was telling him, part of it was Akash's relief also. "No, I haven't. Most people don't."

_Well, don't if you want to keep your food in your stomach._

Katsuya chuckled some more and felt a little emotionally lighter. Akash was so sweet, trying to cheer him up, "I'll try ta remember tha'. Say, if I can feel what you feel, like you can me, is there other t'ings I can do, too?"

_Yes, you can link into my magic. And I can push it into you as well as take it back._

"'Magic'?" Katsuya repeated. "Like Chirna and Leto and Kyran?"

_Almost. You can't cast spells, but you can pull my magic and make fire or curse.  
_

"Fire and curse? Why curse? Aren't dragons supposed ta only be fire?" Katsuya asked, shifting in his spot. His butt was going numb from sitting the way he was for so long. He hated it when his butt went numb, it always hurt after wards and he couldn't walk properly.

_Every dragon has fire and one other element. I have curse_.

"So, is da Blue-Eyes, like, fire and lightenin' then?" Katsuya asked innocently only to be hit with a wave of exhaustion and irritation. His chest hollowed with fear that Akash was starting to dislike him and his brows knitted upwards worryingly. He didn't want Akash to dislike him, he loved Akash! "I-I'm sorry, Akash, I didn't mean ta keep ya awake. Ya should go back ta sleep."

_No. Don't feel bad. It's just the Blue-Eyes pisses me off. The arrogant asshole._

Katsuya's chest loosened and he smiled, if it was just that, then okay."If Kaiba's his...onlooker, then that's probably why!"

_Haha, Seto probably wouldn't mind being called 'Master'._

_"_Of course not, it'd jus' add ta his ego!" Katsuya shot back, getting up. "'ey, Akash..." He murmured, "...can I come sleep wit' ya?"

Katsuya felt a little surprise in his chest and an adoring warmth overfill it. He squirmed. The feelings he'd gotten before weren't so strong; was it because he knew what they were now that he noticed them more? And the feeling themselves....they seemed to make him feel really embarrassed. It wasn't bad, just uncomfortable. He wasn't used to those types of feelings at all.

_Of course, Master. Do you wish for me to come get you? You have yet to see my quarters._

"Auuuh....could ya, please? And don' call me Master!" He meekly asked, ducking his head down subconsciously. He hoped Akash would mind him sleeping with him, but Katsuya really hated to be alone. The three months he'd advoided everyone, even Bakura, he felt terribly lonely, but he didn't need them to start worrying and he knew Bakura would fuss and then demand Katsuya take him to his father so he could rip his balls off or something of the such in the most painful way possible. That's just what Bakura did.

Though, part of him wanted him to tell Seto and she how he reacted. He wanted to know if Seto cared at all or even if Seto would give him a pitying look. He felt so stupid longing for something so impossible, he curled his knees to his chest buried his head in them. He was so hopeless.

"_**Papa?**_" Akash called from Katsuya's door, before slowly pushing open, "**_Are you all right?_**"

"Y-yeah," Katsuya said and ran to the dragon. He tried to run past Akash, but Akash stopped him and wrapped his tail around Katsuya and brought the boy to face him. Katsuya's face was puffy and his eyes were still swollen and red from his crying earlier. "Don't look at me," he covered his face, "I probably look horrible."

"_**That you do,**_" Akash said and placed the tip of his beak on Katsuya's head like a kiss. Katsuya's face warmed and he squeezed his eyes.

"Don't do that!" He said, gathering his fingers in nervous fists. "It embarrasses me!"

"_**There is no way I could not when you are so cute for a human,**_" Akash smiled and started to turn around. "**_Now, let us go back to my den and sleep._**"

--------------

Seto had yet to tell the others about seeing Katsuya when Kane arrived. The beast was large, sleek, and gorgeous. It's blue eyes reminded Seto of the sky and the muscles under all the white scales rippled with every movement. Kan was obviously powerful, strong, an unwielding warrior. His facial features made him menacing at first glance and he was slightly different and scarier then his card had protrayed him as.

It was all destroyed when Kane squealed in delight.

"_**Really, I have a reason to go see Akash!?** Yes!_" The dragon sang, twittering around and chanting about how he got to see Akash. Charlotte sat back and laughed as she watched the dragon prance around and happiness. "**_I'll mount him this time~!_**"

"Excuse me?" Seto asked in disbelief. He wasn't too caring on his facial expression at the moment, the others were still asleep. he was only up because his internal clock got him up just before sunrise every morning. The sun was up now, and Seto had been awake for a while, but he'd yet to see any of the others and Mokuba didn't even twitch when Seto checked on him earlier. Plus the dragon had shocked him to a point his brain malfunctioned.

"**_And it's really nice to meet you, Master! Especially now that you give me a reason to visit my Akash! Now if only you would mate with his Master so he could convince Akash that I am not the worst! I will be the best mate Akash could ever have! I'll spoil him and cuddle him and--_**"

Seto _had_ to be missing something. His dragon, or who he suspected was his since he'd called him 'Master', was ranting on him mating his puppy --which if his brain didn't dysfunction every time and make him bully the blonde, was very possible-- so he could mate with another dragon that obviously didn't want his undying attention. And _then_ he went on about spoiling and cuddling humping him into every crevice of their two castles.

It was all slightly ridiculous...despite the fact Seto could relate to wanting to spoil and cuddle and--- He stopped himself and face palmed.

Kane shove his large muzzle in front of Seto's face with bright eyes, "**_When do we get to go, Master? Now?_**"

Seto sighed, it was if this dragon was one of the blithering, but competent, idiots that worked for him, "As soon as the others are awake."

Waves of disappointment knocked at his chest and he frowned, he was not disappointed in any way. He looked at the dragon whose head was down and-- dare Seto say it-- was pouting.

"Oh, Kane, stop pouting, at least you get to go to Akash's castle," Charlotte said, waving her hand in front of her face. "I've got to go, so behave."

"**_Fine,_**" Kane snorted her off, "**_Be that way._**" He looked to Seto, "**_Master._**"

Seto examined the dragon back over, trying to find anything about the monster's beastly appearance that fit his personality. There was _nothing_. No tell-tale sign other then the pouting emotion in his lightening blue eyes would give Seto any hint of the dragon's hyperness. He sighed in defeat: he'd lost whatever battle he was trying to win to convince himself he didn't have a outrageous dragon for a duel monster.

"**_Do not be so saddened, Master, I am not _**_that** bad. You're just as bad as Akash.**_" The dragon paused, "**_Plus neither Mother nor Father or that other Blue-eyes are like me. I'm special._**"

"'Special' indeed," Seto said, frowning, "How did you know I was sad and not disappointed?"

"**_Because now that we've met, we will be able to feel each other's presence and emotions. As with every dragon and his master. Oh, and you also can use my magic!_**"

Seto raised a talented eyebrow--only one in the way that drove Mokuba crazy because he couldn't do it--and turned around, decidedly hungry. He wondered if Charlotte had finished setting up lunch since that was what she had left earlier to do. He also wondered what she'd make. He'd had some of her food for breakfast this morning and it was unbelievable delicious, even if Seto didn't know what it was; he didn't ask either because other then the eggs all the other food looked too foreign.

"**_Master!!! Don't just ignore me!_**" Kane whined, waddling after him, "**_I'm taking you to Akash's castle today, you should be thankful._**"

Seto smirked, _now_ the dragon starts acting cocky and cool? Obviously Kane had never been taught about first impressions, otherwise it would probably get him in to Akash's pants--figuratively speaking-- much quicker if Akash held any fancy for the white dragon courting him. He probably did, seeing as how he hadn't completely turned Kane away from him....Charlotte and Kane did say 'he', right.

Oh, Gods, the dragon was like him.

"Right, thankful. Weren't you saying earlier about having a reason to go, therefore you'd get to see Akash?"

Kane scowled and Seto felt the unhappiness wave right through him--much stronger then the first time he had felt the foreign emotion from who he believe was Kane. "**_It's not the point._**"

"I know where Jounouchi is, and from what I hear he's well taken care of. There is nothing to fret about, I'll tell the others and wait another week."

"**_You're evil in its darkest form._**"

Seto smirked, walking into the INN and leaving the dragon behind outside. He was indeed evil, but that what happens when you need to grow up cut throat and get the things you want yourself. It was also because he needed to get to Katsuya, fast, and see if the boy was okay and why the hell he was here in the shadow realms....he'd never admit that though.

When he walked into the eating room he was surprised to see everyone up. They were sleepy faced and bed-messed, but awake none-the-less. Even the midday-Mokuba was up, which surprised Seto the most since he'd seen the boy sleep until five in the afternoon, give or take a potty break or two and maybe getting some water before heading straight back to bed and to have gone to bed at ten or eleven the night before.

They all examined him half-heartedly before the sighed in credence that, of course, _Seto_ would be up and functioning well, unlike the rest of them.

He sat down next to Mokuba at the table, feeling the twinge of loneliness he suspected was from Kane all by himself outside. Seto had just left him even though Seto was his Master ad they'd just met around a half-hour ago. They hadn't bonded or gotten to know eachother or anything. Slight guilt pawed at Seto's stomach and he figured he'd take Mokuba and their lunch and sit outside with Kane.

_Master, I'm bored._

Great, Seto thought, he had telepathy too; now he had to deal with _two_ other beings getting into his head and disrupting any peace Seto had any chance of getting.

"Shut it, I'll be out in a moment," he said, rubbing his temple and ignoring the strange looks he was faced with from the others. That was _not_ something he would say to Seth.

Cheer filled a little part as his chest as Kane answer with a cool 'cool'. Seto took a large intake of air. _Deep breaths, Seto_, he told himself, _deep breaths_.

"Brother, are you okay?" Mokuba asked, managing to squish the sentence in before a big yawn. Seto smirked, thinking how cute his little brother was, and pat Mokuba on the head and running them through the uncontrolled bed head the younger boy had.

"Just dandy," he said sarcastically.

Charlotte entered the room carrying a tray of plates and food Her eyes widened with surprise when she saw Seto inside with the others instead of with the dragon. "Oh, Seto! I figured you's still be with Kane; I was going to bring your food out there."

"Who's Kane?" Yugi asked, leaning sleepily on Atemu and rubbing his eyes. Why wouldn't the pharaoh let him sleep more? He was _so_ tired after being up so long and running around so much, even Ryou was doing his best not to fall back asleep at the table, leaning on Bakura and mumbling quietly to his Yami. Mokuba only seemed to be there because he'd intially got up for the bathroom and a drink of water and decided to stay since the others were up.

"The one taking you to Akash's castle...has Seto not told you?" She said, placing the plates in front of them and grabbing a pitcher nearby to refill the half-empty glasses of water on the table. "One moment, I'll get you a glass and food."

"No," Atemu frowned, "Light Priest, why are we going to this Akash's castle?"

Seto didn't say anything, taking Mokuba's glass and emptying most of the ice water into his dry throat. The water felt like it was being sucked into his throat more then going down it. He hadn't realized he was so thirsty, but thinking of it, that last drink he really had was that sticky tea he'd drank before looking through the village for Katsuya. Not healthy for sure, but he was mostly tinking about finding the blonde and mapping the village out out of habit.

"Priest, he asked you a question," Bakura growled. He was tired and hungry and Ra only knew what the hell was happening to Katsuya at the moment. Worry pitted in his stomach at the thought the blonde could be hurt and he didn't like it. Sure, Ryou was the only one Bakura would ever _love_ love, but Katsuya had pulled a few heart strings himself and became like...he'd think little brother but family betrayed you and Katsuya wouldn't do that, but either way, he was someone Bakura protected and cared about! If this Akash had nothing to do with Katsuya, why were they wasting their time?!

"So I heard, but I have no interest in answering," Seto replied smugly. Let them suffer, if it wasn't for him they'd probably give up and go home before Katsuya came back to the INN.

"Please, Brother," Mokuba pleaded, puppy-eyeing the puppy-weak brunette. Seto just looked away and as Charlotte entered the room, he took it and Mokuba leading the small teen-- as well as the rest of the groups with their lunches and questions-- to sit with the Blue-Eyes patiently waiting for him.

The entire groups eyes widened as they stared at the magnificent monster that looked back with a glint of amusment in his blue orbs. "**_I see you brought the others, can we go now?_**" Kane asked, excitedly rising to his feet.

"After lunch," Seto said, munching on the sandwich Charlotte had given him. He was aware of the fact none of the others seemed to be eating, but instead struck in awe. He didn't mind too much, despite the excitement to go see Katsuya already dribbling his stomach like a basketball and making it hard to eat, he was enjoying seeing the others amzed at his awesome looking beast.

"**_They aren't even eating yet!_**" The dragon whined and settled back into a neat little ball in the grass at the backside of the INN. "_**I wanna go see my mate-to-be.**_"

Seto agreed, he wanted to go see Katsuya, but he held himself back and kept to himself until the others bothered him enough that he,for the satisfaction of seeing their surprised faces, told them about the puppy.

He wasn't disappointed.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Katsuya hated himself for wanting to go with Kyran to the forest to get herbs because almost as soon as they had gotten there they were attack by a hive of Pixie Knights that pick at them with their sharp knives and pinched their skin instant red with their magic and they split up-- without knowing-- to get away from the tiny, vicious creatures.

That's how he found himself alone itching and sore in a clearing with a bunch of Celtic Nymphs staring at him from the trees. He sat on a rock and rested his elbows on his knees and his chin in his palms, thinking. How was he supposed to get back to the others. He didn't know how things grew or worked in the Shadow Realm he was currently in and, alhough he could surivive for a while, he didn't know what to do if a bigger monster found him or if the stupid pixies caught sight of him again.

He'd tried to call to Kyran, who was the one who poofed them there, but that failed almost as epically as when Katsuya tried to use telepathy to call Akash.

Deciding that since he was stuck, he'd start with priorities. First, to find a water source. He looked at the nymphs staring at them and wondered what the possibility of them helping him was. He opened his mouth to ask but they all faded into the forest when he did. So much for asking for help.

He got up and brushed himself off, as much of a waste of time it will be since he'll be getting dirty walking through the woods, but it was a habit he did anytime he got up since when he was in a gang he'd gotten knocked down so many times before he starting winning more often then losing. Yugi commented once when they were in school and he'd done it after getting out of his seat. He just said he was wiping off the boredom and directed the conversation to the new card Yami had help get and put into Yugi's personal deck.

Yugi had talked excitedly about it-- because it was a new card or because Yami had taken a lot of time and thought to get it, Katsuya didn't know.

He sighed, envious, wishing he had someone who wasted that much time on him. Hell, anyone who wasted anytime on him because they loved him, whether it be an 'I love you bfore they left him or a phone call to tell him something unimportant.

Seto came to mind and Katsuya felt a knife metaphorically stab his proverbial heart. Yeah, he specifically had a person in mind that he wanted to call him and tell him he cared, but if Katsuya ever learned anything living off the streets it was beggars really couldn't be chosers: you got something around the desired category in mind and accepted it. Choosing only made you starve and die.

He started walking in a direction, which direction he didn't know, but a direction.

He wondered if Seto had noticed he was gone. Or even Mokuba who would tell Seto or even if Mokuba did, if Seto listened. Katsuya held himself. It'd be nice to see Seto here, maybe with a Blue-Eyes White Dragon. The two together would certainly make a powerful looking force...and it'd look pretty sexy too.

He shook his head. He needed to think about other things so he thought about Yugi and them being here and how Chirna would probably squeal in delight and wait on adorable Yugi's hand and foot or she'd snuggled his face between her breasts.

Thinking of her breasts, no matter how wrong it kind of was, he remembered the hug she gave him in the bath. His entire face blossomed red like a morning, long-stemed, big red rose. It felt so weird to have someone to hug you when they saw you at your worst. It wasn't bad by any means, just embarrassing and extremely comforting to the wounded soul. No wonder Yugi always came to him for a hug every time Atemu messed up. Yeah, Katsuya had always put as much feeling and comfort into the hug as possible because he wanted to make Yugi feel better, but that was the first time being held so gently by someone. Bakura's hugs were always awkward and kind of rough, enjoyable still, but not the same.

Katsuya stopped when he came to a pond with three Celtic Spirit - The River. They all looked blindly but knowingly at him and swished in the water back to what they were formerly focused on.

Ignored and satisfied he'd found water, Katsuya turned around to make his way to a large tree nearby he could climb and snuggle up to sleep for the night. The next thing he'd have to do was get sticks and wood to get a fire going without disrupting the Nymphs or any other creature he could hurt or annoy. That was going to be a bit harder since he wouldn't be able to exactly see what spirits took hold of the wood he would pick up until it was too late.

"_Human, not of this realm...._" One the Spirits called out. Katsuya spun around and looked at the spirit with the little bundle in her arms nestled against her breasts. "_We will do good for you, if you for us...._"

Katsuya shivered. The spirit's voice was distant and echoed in a way that sent unpleasent chills up his spine, and going on instinct he stayed alarmed but didn't run, "What do for ya want me ta do and what do I get?" He was used to these deals. You had to ask before accepting or risk being killed or gypped. They happened on his streets every day and he'd made more then anough himself when he was in a gang.

"_This...needs help....you need help...."_ She answered rocking the bundle gently. "_Trade_."

"What are the full terms and conditions," he asked wearily. She was being to vague.

The spirit looked to her friends or sisters or whatever they were and smiled with long sharp teeth, "_You are smart to be too young. You take heal this child, we reward you to Akash sky castle."_

"Ya mean, like, my Akash, not some place I don' know, right?"

All three of the spirits laughed, like it was silly that he didn't trust them. He had grown up not trusting strangers and he wasn;t going to start now, so growling he turned around.

"_Yes,_" said the bundle holder, suddenly rushed sounding, "_You Akash. Child need land heath. Take child. I plead."_

Katsuya turned around looking into the spirit's desperate eyes as she held out the bundle towards him. He wiggled a bit under the three solemn looks he was given. Why would they choose him? He was already trying hard to take care of himself...but then again they had known he needed to get back to Akash and they said they'd help.

"Alright, only if ya promise not to return me hurt or dead."

The three gave him shocked sorrowful looks, like they knew everything about him as much as they knew nothing. The bundle holder nodded and 'yes'd as he took the bundle and felt it squirm during the transfer. What had he gotten himself into?

"_No pain. No death. Just help._"

He unwrapped it a little just to take a peek, soon though he had unwrapped it completely to examine it. A wolf. A tiny, baby wolf looked up lost and hurt at him. It was wrapped helplessly in river-weed-- he suspected the spirits were trying and failing miserably to bandage the poor thing-- the tip of it's left ear had been obviously bit off and blood matted its wet and muddy fur. It was so dirty that Katsuya couldn't even tell the _color_ of the fur. Looking at, it his mouth opened in horror, his heart broke.

"Wha-what happened?!" Katsuya managed to finally ask. He looked up and the three spirits were chanting in chorus. Dread sweated on his skin as a blue ball of pure magic was formed. Not too much after, it engulfed him.


	6. Popping Pups

I was reading a review and I had to ask myself a question....

It's angsty? I myself can't do angst at all because I run around my house yelling in despair feeling the deep hollow of utter disappointment empty my heart and fill it with rage! So it's really surprising that someone told me it's angsty and it make me really happy because if it's angsty, the only way someone would keep reading it is if it good!

So yes, happiness to Ronald Reagan (wtf?) and the world.

* * *

Katsuya coughed, holding the wolf pup up above the water. The magic the spirits had enwrapped him in carried him back to Akash's obese bath. It had let go of him a few feet above it and he'd landed, safely-- and surprised-- cuddling the pup protectively, into the warm bath.

He awkwardly swam to the side of the pool where he could sit and make sure the wolf was okay. He coughed some more, finally able to sit on the ledge and hold the pup a little more safely then just held with one hand in the air as he had swam. Well, he wasn't hurt or dead, like the spirits promised, but as he looked at the poor wolf whimpering in his arms, he felt the promise shatter as his heart broke more for it.

The poor thing was so beat up and dirty. Katsuya took off the dirty cloth the spirits had wrapped it in and checked it's gender. A female. A female with a broken back leg, part of it's ear missing, gashes and blotches of hair torn from her body and she shivered uncontrollably in Katsuya's arms. The big purple eyes looked at him: cold, hungry, and so much loneliness and pain. Katsuya couldn't relate to having his ear bit off, but everything else he was in perfect tune with.

Pathetically she whimpered. Scared. Terrified.

The blonde looked around, seeing the hutch that had the soap and towels in it but not the first aid kit Chirna had gotten after the first time she'd given him a bath. He wondered if he could reach Akash now that he was back in the castle and have him bring first aid. He was about to try when he felt utter dread from Akash as well as any other negative emotions shoot through him like a bazooka bullet.

"Akash?" The blonde asked, trying his hardest to feel Akash in his mind like last night as he grabbed the emotional link experimentally.

_Master!? Are you alright!? Where are you?! Kyran said you were lost in the forest! _Great, no wonder it hadn't worked to call the sorcerer, he'd left!

"I'm in your bath. Bring the first-aid kit here, will ya?"

_Are you hurt!? I'll bring it right away!_

_"_I ain't but I've got something tha' is," Katsuya informed, getting out of the bath and undressing from his soaking wet clothes. He needed to put the pup down to do it and it worried him the pup might try to move and do something dangerous, but she didn't. She just whimpered pathetically and continued to watch the human, scared. Katsuya wonder what did this to her as he coddled the broken baby over to the hutch. He grabbed a loufa, soap, a wash cloth, four towels, and checked to see if there was an aid kit in there, but there wasn't.

"It's okay," Katsuya whispered to the pup, walking back to the bath with his supplies, "I can't promise a good clean and bandaging won't hurt, 'cause it does, but it'll help you feel better in the long run..."

He got back down in the 'tub', feeling the water warm his skin more comfortingly without his clothes and he debated about the broke leg. He had to pop it back together at one time or another, the bone was making the skin stretch up like a hill on her leg and it most definitely hurt like a kick to the dick, but would it be better to have a splint at the same time so he could immediately put it on after wards?

Deciding it would be better now to pop it and splint it as soon as Akash go there, Katsuya's stomach twisted. He'd done it plenty of time on fellow members of his gangs and he'd popped his own knee joint back it, though it was never the same, he'd never done it to a puppy before. Feeling the poking bone lightly, he quickly pushed it back into place with his thumb. The little creature cried in distress wiggling half-heartedly and exhausted in Katsuya's hold.

"Shh...shh...it's okay, I'll have to do it again if you don't stop moving," he claimed calmly, brushing his hand over the matted fur as the wolf took Katsuya's wrist in her mouth weakly. Katsuya smiled, glad that the pup was still fighting back as much she possibly could; that was a good sign.

He carefully dunked the pup in from the neck down and watched dirt and mud particles float and dirty the surface of the pool. With one hand he wet the loufa and poured some soap on it before lifting the wolf out of the water and scrubbing as lightly as possible while scrubbing hard enough to get all the blood, dirt, and grime off of her. The pup squirmed, trying to weakly get away as she felt her wounds sting with the soap, but Katsuya held her still, careful of her broken leg. She hurt so much already, why was the human hurting her more? Wasn't she weak enough?

Katsuya lowered the wolf's fragile body in the water so he could scoop water onto her head. She squeezed her eyes shut and folded her ears even closer to her head as Katsuya lightly scrubbed them between his rough-skinned fingers, unfurling all the muck and guck that was stuck to them. His fingers rubbed delicate circles over the top of her head and across her wounded face.

"Okay," the blonde said softly, "hold your breath." He quickly and softly dunk the whole wolf under water, gave her a quick rub, and brought her up, clean and gook free, but Katsuya had scrubbed dirty scabs off of, leaving wounds open and blood oozing over the top of the water surface like an oil spill.

Akash barged in, waddling as fast as possible over to Katsuya.

"Akash! Where's the kit?" Katsuya asked, clamoring out of the bath, grabbing a fluffy towel and wrapping it around the puppy to keep her warm, and grabbing another to wrap around his waist. He loved feeling the big fluffy towels, at home he'd had old, torn and stained, flat, uncushiony towels; Katsuya could sleep in a bed of these fluffy ones for the rest of his life and be content.

Akash opened his mouth and the large white box rolled off his tongue onto the floor by Katsuya's feet. Katsuya didn't know to be thankful or disgusted. "**_I'm sorry I took so long, but someone had started toward the castle and Chirna went to greet them and I had to find where she put the damn thing._**"

"It's okay," Katsuya said, plopping himself cautiously on the ground and holding the wolf in one hand he adeptly opened the box with the other. He'd learned a lot of things in life. One was: be able to do everything with both hands because you never know when your dominant hand would become unusable. The teaching came early on when Katsuya had broken his dominant hand's wrist. Now, he had no idea which was his dominant hand, he used them both equally.

"**_What is that?_**" Akash said, moving his gaze from looking over at the bites from the Pixie Knights on Katsuya's body to the bundle in Katsuya's arms.

"My patient," Katsuya said, ripping the wrapper off new medic tape with his teeth. It was weird since the wrap was protected by thin leather other then plastic, but it opened easy, not as easy but easy all the same. "She's a wolf. The Celtic Spirits- The River told me they'd put me back here if I help her, so we made a deal."

"**_And you aren't scared that you had just made a deal with some very tricky spirits?_**"

Katsuya raised his trembling hand, "Are ya kidding? I'm still shaking!"

Akash laughed and Katsuya put the opened medic tape in the dry safety of the box and uncased the wolf. He gently took the third towel he'd grabbed and rubbed the pup's silver fur dry in circles. The pup wiggled a little, but in a calm, comfortable way. Katsuya smiled lovingly and couldn't stop himself from kissing the tip of her nose. She nipped rebelliously at him, making him snap his head back of have his nose snapped off. "She's a fighter."

"**_You sound like a loving mother....Papa._**" Akash said, watching his master's face turn a brilliant shade of red as he stumbled over words.

"D-don' say that!" He mumbled, finally able to spew out words in an actual sentence. He grabbed the long tongue depressor, which was perfect length for using for a splint for the pup's broken leg. He settle the pup in the hole of his indian-style positioned legs and held her leg still with the splint as he took the medic tape and wrapped it tightly and quickly around them.

"**_Have you named her? Or know of her name?_**" Akash asked, wiggling into a position that he was laying down, watching Katsuya.

"I wanna call her Aylin," he commented aloofly, finishing with the leg and breaking off the tape. He looked into the big, violet eyes that settled for curiously watching him as he bandaged her up. "I was bored at the library one day an' lookin' up baby names; it means 'moon halo', an' she's got moonlight-silver fur. But I won't really call her that until I know she doesn't got one."

"**_How will you find out?_**"

Katsuya shrugged. He looked back Akash and smiled, thinking how cute both Akash and 'Aylin' were so cute. Katsuya grabbed some of the healing jars Chirna had used for him and placed the goop on the open wounds, including the nipped ear. The stuff was really weird, it soaked into the skin and in moments the wounds--and the goop- would disappear; the catch was it hurt really bad and could only be used on open wounds.

The pup whimpered, trembling and squirming, awkwardly kicking her splinted leg, as the pain healed her. Katsuya felt bad, watching her be so miserable. The guilt swelled in his chest and he himself, started to squirmed uncomfortable. Nothing should have to go through the pain she was; it just wasn't right. Especially since she was only a small, defenseless pup that couldn't take care of herself yet. He wondered who left her and why? Or had she been taken away by something that wanted to eat her?

"**_Papa, do not feel guilty, you are trying to heal her,_**" Akash soothed, nuzzling Katsuya's clean face. Katsuya blushed, think he'd never get used to being called that, since it was such an endearing term, but shook his head. Even though he was trying to heal her, he was hurting her more in the process. He hated hurting the unarmed and defenseless, it was against everything he now lived for. Akash pouted at Katsuya's holiness. "**_Papa..._**" he scorned,

The pups wriggling slowly came to a stop as the wounds finished healing. She looked at Katsuya now more tired then anything. Katsuya remembered the feeling after the medicine was put on him but he ignored it at the time, too alert to let himself lull into a sleep. He got the last dry towel and moved the silver wolf carefully into the black fluff of it and wrapped it around her so he could coddle her like a newborn. She gave him a last look before her eyes closed.

Katsuya had an inner 'awwwwwe' moment looking at the wolf with her paws peaking out of the towel and curled and her face looking peaceful for the first-time since Katsuya had seen her. He got up and smiled at Akash, who lazily rose to his feet himself. "Show me ta my room, please."

Akash grinned to show his pearly whites, sharp and ready to tear at the flesh of the poor unfortunate creature that was caught to be his food. "**_Of course._**"

----------------------------------

Seto watched Yugi and the others blather curiously to Chirna, the guilty looking Dark Magician Girl. She obviously had something to do with Katsuya being here, she wiggled a lot when the others asked how she found him and if he was okay and such. And then the was Kane. He was laying right next to Seto, shifting and fidgeting around every moment Akash had yet to show up.

Seto was now fiercely curious to meet this Akash. When he'd asked Kane about him Seto only got a long spiel on how much of a loving, sweet, sexy dragon Akash was and then a much too detailed version of what Kane planned to do after courting the 'loving, sweet, sexy' dragon. Kane got a hard smack on the side-- with no effect on Kane's being, but it made Seto feel better, as well as hurt his hand-- when describing his plans with Mokuba sitting right in front of Seto on Kane's back.

"**_Akash!_**" Kane sprang up excitedly, waddling quickly over to a truly very pretty, very _very _terrified, Red Eyes Black dragon. The dragon froze watching Kane waddle towards him before turning around and _squirming_ forward as fast as waddle-possible, back into the safety of the castle.

Seto looked quickly around for Katsuya; expecting him to be around since Chirna had said that Katsuya was busy at the moment but would come out as soon as possible. He didn't hide nor hair of the flamboyant blonde.

"Where's Jou?" Yugi asked, also looking for the blonde. His violet eyes darted back and forth from the entrance to the dragon now caught in Kane's grasp, struggling to get away from the bite Kane had on his black tail.

"**_I banished you! You have no reason to be here! Chirna, I'll kill you for taking down the spells!_**" The black dragon screech, turning as much as possible and slamming his muscular body into Kane, whose grip had yet to falter. "_**Let go of me you purring cow!**_"

"They're looking for Katsuya," Chirna chittered, rocking nervously on the heels of her feet. She wasn't expecting Katsuya's friends to actually come to the Shadow Worlds and get him. Hell, she didn't even expect them to know he was in the Shadow Realms!

"**_He's---get off and leave me alone! -- taking care of a wolf demon pup. He'll --- Fucker! Nnn!-- be out once he's changed! Get this cow off of me!_**" Akash yelped as he felt his tail lifted and his body pressed down by Kane who was slowly mounting atop of him. He squirmed as much as possible in the tight hold the white dragon had on him. And Kane wondered _why _Akash wouldn't mate with him; he was a beast!

"Really?!" She asked, surprised, she had thought he was still in the forest since Leto and Kyran had yet to come back from looking for him, but the others' faces twisted at her obvious surprised. "B-but he--!"

"**_Get OFF!_**" Akash roared helplessly.

Seto finally took pity on the dragon and decided to try to get Kane to stop. "Kane, stop!"

Kane turned his neck to look at his master. He was _so_ close! He had been able to actually get Akash by surprise-- which he hadn't been able to do since the first time he tried taking the black dragon. Akash was actual weakening this time, finally being a little less rebellious to him and his master wanted him to stop?! But Seto gave him a look that made him solemnly waddle back to his Master and sit there wiggling with uncomfortableness of being prepared to mate and unable to do so.

Akash gave Seto a worshipping look before he quickly wobble back inside to hide behind his Master. Yes, his master-- no his Papa-- would keep him safe from the evil frisky dragon. The thing should of been born an incubus for Gods Sake! A stab went through his well armored chest as he wondered how many other dragons the Blue Eyes had humped and relieved himself with. Probably many with his smooth, dense muscle that ripple against his skin like soothing ripples on the lake's surface.

_Akash, is everythin' a'right? _Katsuya asked.

"**_I am fine, Papa,_**" Akash replied softly, continuing to waddle back to Katsuya's room.

"Ya don' look fine."

Katsuya stood unexpectedly in front of Akash in the middle of the hallway, dressed in new worn brown leather boots, worn light brown leather pants, and a creamy short sleeved peasent shirt, and carrying the sleeping pup. Akash lowered his head to his papa's level, just staring pathetically at the human.

Katsuya smiled and sighed, reaching up and petting the smooth scales and rough, smooth skin on Akash's beak. "Look, Akash, we may have dis telepathy thing goin', but I can't just read your mind."

Akash mumbled and shifted to a position that he was settled laying down on the hall floor. Should he tell his papa? Akash wondered, His papa wouldn't do anything to hurt him, but telling him the fact he liked Kane, another dragon, and truthfully having no objection other then refusing to be a whore to the dragon, was miserably embarrassing.

Katsuya smiled and walked over to a crook in the way Akash had positioned his body between the curled front legs, settling comfortably in the with the baby wolf. Akash was warm and his large strong body was comforting and safe. Katsuya had found this spot sleeping with Akash the night before and instantly claimed it as his bed despite the large pool of cushion that was Akash's bed. It was just as comfortable, but not nearly as warm.

Giving in and knowing his papa wouldn't let him be until he told him something, he decided to change the topic to something else, "**_Your friends from you realm are here to take you back._**"

Katsuya honey eyes widened and he gaped.

"**_Papa, it is impolite to have your mouth open. Do you wish to go see them?_**"

Katsuya stirred, he believed they were there, it was entirely possible because knowing all the freaks, they'd do anything to get what they wanted. Nothing was out of reach with Shadow Magic. But before he got up, he frowned and settled back into Akash's arms.

"Yeah, but we'll wait 'til ya tell me what's wrong. If I have ta keep feelin' your heart break, I wanna know what it's about."

Akash snorted in dismay. He forgot about that and now that he remembered, he could feel Katsuya's worry for him. He could tell Katsuya a lie, but then he'd have to go back out there with Kane and Katsuya would be upset he hadn't been told the truth. "**_The one who brought them up here is a dragon I....like. But the first thing he does when he sees me is....unpleasant. I am saddened at the fact he may treat others the same when I wish...._**" Akash wiggled. He had no desire to tell his papa at all, let alone the entire thing!

"Ya were the only one?" Katsuya finished. He rubbed Akash's paw, lovingly, and snuggled a bit more into Akash's front legs. "Okay, just take me to the door so I can see my friends and you can stay inside...unless ya want me here?"

"**_No, it is all right. Thank-you,_**" Akash said, feeling a little less tense inside. Talking with Katsuya and feeling the waves of comfort from the blonde help Akash relax. "_**I will go with you, since Seto is there, Kane will listen to leave me alone. He had earlier.**_"

The comforting waves stopped and dread filled both of them for Katsuya as he yelled and stuttered.

-----------

"W-WHAT?!?!?!"

"Oh my..." Chirna said, hearing Katsuya's stuttered, horrified scream from the castle. It wasn't too deep in, but it was definitely a feat of some very big lungs.

The others all looked towards the castle startled.

"I REFUSE! YOU STUPID---PUT ME DOWN---NO I WASN'T---I DON'T CARE!!!!!!!"

"What is that?" Bakura asked, "It sounds like Retriever."

"Oh, it is Katsuya," Chirna mumbled, biting her knuckle hesitantly, "But he hasn't yelled this loud since we'd forced him into the bath. I wonder what Akash did."

"Forced him into the bath?" Mokuba repeated. He knew Katsuya, and Katsuya, although a bit rough, was usually pretty good with personal hygiene. He'd even ask Yugi at times when he came to the game shop after a fight if he could take a quick shower.

"Yes, well, you see, he was being a bit rebellious."

"Why?" Yugi asked. Seto was just as curious, fully sure she _had_ something to do with Katsuya's disappearance into the Shadow Realm. She was too jumpy at some of their questions not to have been.

"AKASH!!!" Katsuya screamed as Akash waddled on out with the blonde securely wrapped in his tail. Everyone, even Seto who was sure Katsuya was well tken care of, let out a sigh of relief seeing the frantic blonde pounding on Akash's tail as hard as he possibly could holding the bundle in his one arm. "I disown you, you backstabbing stupid, Red Eyes Black Dragon!!!!!!"

"**_Papa, you know you love me._**"

"....You're still evil!"

"Jou!" Yugi yelled, capturing the blondes attention.

"Yug'!!!!" Katsuya yelled back, happily. He smiled, forgetting even why he was yelling and disowning Akash.

"Stupid Retriever! _You_'re the one supposed to be bring things back, not us!" Bakura said to the blonde, only to be smacked by Ryou.

"He means he's glad to see you okay!" Ryou corrected as Akash Lowered Katsuya to his feet.

Katsuya immediately took off and hugged Yugi, and Atemu who actually hugged back full force, Mokuba, then Ryou and Bakura. Katsuya felt a weight on his chest lighten when he saw them, even though he really wished Anzu and Honda were here too.

"Stupid mutt."

Katsuya turned around and remembered why he was so mad at Akash. Stupid dragon, stupid Seto, stupid blood rushing to his stupid face! "Can it, Moneybags! I bet you didn't even..."

The thought settled onto Katsuya. Seto didn't need to come. Sure, Mokuba was here, but Seto could of held them back. He could of stayed. There wasn't anything here for the brunette that the blonde could think of, besides himself, but there was _no_ way Seto would come for him...would he?

Slowly, he walked over to Seto, fidgeting ever step until he got to right in front of Seto where he froze. The heavy passion-hiding blue eyes stared at him. His heart stopped and he stared at Seto, standing next to a very powerful looking Blue Eyes, looking extremely handsome and, well, powerful. Katsuya took a big, deep breath and then suddenly hugged the brunette with his free arm.

"As weird as it sounds," Katsuya said, burrowing his face into Seto's masculine smelling neck to hide his blush, "I missed ya too, Moneybags."

Seto awkwardly hugged back, much to everyone but Kane's and Mokuba's surprise. He didn't know why he was so awkward hugging Katsuya when he'd hugged Mokuba millions of times, but feeling the blonde in his arms, awkward or not, was very comforting."That's why dogs shouldn't run away from their Masters," he said. Katsuya made to move away at the cold comment, but the brunette held on tighter and whispered, "I actually missed you, too."

Katsuya moved back still, though not out of the coldness, but the surprise he felt. His face was hot and blossoming red like an open wound. He was sure to here about it from Bakura later when the theif strangled every piece of information from him.

He gasped, when he felt the black towel in his arms wiggle. He looked at the pup, wiggling much more strongly then she had before her nap. Another part of katsuya found relief seeing the wolf open her violet eyes and stare almost forgivingly at him. Seto hovered over her and she looked at Katsuya, smelling his pheromones increase at the presense of this other human, and couldn't decide to growl at the new human and protect the one who had helped her, or just leave them both be.

Deciding the way the protector took care of her so adeptly meant he's helped himself or others in the same sort of situation, she growled at Seto and nipped at Katsuya scoldingly for letting the other human so close to him.

"Oh! A wolf demon!" Chirna said, "But they usually travel in packs...what happened when you were in the forest?"

"You were in a forest?" Atemu asked.

"Yeah," Katsuya said, "An hour ago I was lost then I met some Celtic Spirits - The Rivers and they took me back for takin'--hey calm down-- care of her."

**_"You can put her down. She is fully healed, just rowdy and tired,_**" Akash said, from a safe distance from Kane. He looked coldly at the pleading look the Blue Eyes was giving him.

"That's an oxymoron," Katsuya said, but hesitantly put her down. The towel fell off of her and she tumbled aound Katsuya, checking him out before settling atop his foot.

"It seems it likes you, Jou," Ryou said, crouching down to see it at Katsuya's feet better. He was still far away, but the creature was so small the crouching helped.

"What's her name?" Yugi asked, his violet eyes glancing at her as well.

"_Aylin_."

"Aylin," Katsuya repeated before dread ate his stomach as he looked down to the pup staring up at him.

"_It is what you named me, Mother_."

Even the Yamis looked surprised at the pup that was suddenly speaking to them. Well, everyone one was staring surprised, except the dragons and Chirna. She was a wolf-demon and they were more surprise Katsuya expected her not to be able to talk; but Katsuya wasn't surprised that she could talk, no, after half the crap he'd been through, he'd learned few things freaked him out like they used to.

He was more surprised _Aylin_ had called him 'Mother'.

And true to the name, he'd did what any sweet-hearted, flutter-hearted, overbearing mother would do: he fainted.

Seto reacted quick, wrapping his arms around Katsuya's waist and gently guiding the human-puppy down. The others quickly rushed over to them, including a very insecure Akash who blew the negative thoughts away when his papa had fainted.

Akash tried to wrap his tail around Katsuya, to pick him up and bring him to his room but Kane grabbed it between his jaws and brought Akash fitfully back.

"**_Not now, you stupid cow! Pa--_**"

"**_Let the little ones take care of him. They will be able to inspect him better on their own when he's on the ground and not wrapped protectively in your tail._**"

Akash looked at Kane who, for once, was not looking hungrily at him but caring and concerned. Akash felt a stab in his chest at the look. And another as he thought of all the other dragons Kane had probably seduced with it. Akash was defeated though. Kane was right, the humans knew more about human bodies then he did, and could help his papa much more.

Aylin, on the other hand, was barking everyone away. Even with the tip of her left ear nibbled off and sharp immature teeth, her small size and cute face worked against her protecting the one who healed her. They had no right to touch him, he was not hurt, the pheromone human had caught him. He was sleeping and unable to protect himself, there wasn't any reason for them attack _anyways_.

"Aylin," Seto said. The pup growled at him but he reached around and grabbed her scruff and picked her up, leaving her helpless. "You're...Mother would not like that you are barking off his friends."

The pup immediately growled back, "_Put me down! Do not leave Mother attended with others around!!! Are you a fool?!?!?! Stupid human!_"

Bakura immediately crouched down and held Katsuya's head, checking the blonde's vitals and smacking everyone's but Ryou's hands away from the unconscious blonde. "He's fine," he declared, "He really just fainted from the shock. That's a first." He lifted the boy bridal style and gave a look daring anyone to try and stop him.

"I'll show you to his room!" She chirped, giggling a bit. "He's so cute, I'm so glad I've taken initiative to adopt him."

"Oh, you could've at least called and told us you found him!" The Sorcerer called, walking out of the woods with his father behind him. They both were drenched with mud and covered in river weed like some kind of lochness monster.

"Don't think you'll get away with this tonight, Chirna," Leto said, grabbing some of the weed and mud on his helmet and throwing it onto the dirt ground.

Yugi's eyes widened and looked to Atemu, who smiled charmingly at him.

"I think Bakura's going to kill someone if he doesn't get Katsuya to a room where he could lay Jou down," Ryou warned, placing his hand on the small of Bakura's back. His Yami was tense and if looks could kill....

"And I think it should be fast," Mokuba added, pointing to the viciously struggling wolf pup in Seto's grip. She certainly didn't give up very easy.

"Of course," Chirna said, again heading towards the castle. She waved her hand in the air and told the two filthy men to take a bath before coming to Katsuya's room.

Akash followed closely behind the group but Kane stayed put, afraid to offend the already defensive dragon. He already screwed up once today, why do it again? When Akash stopped to see what Kane was doing, his insides twisted. Kane stared almost like a starved kitten at them walking into the castle. "**_You can come_**," Akash said, but quickly followed with a dark warning, "**_but I'll rip open your neck and dine upon you flesh for the next week if you try anything._**"

Kane quickly waddle up next Akash and nuzzled him lovingly only to be snapped at. He chuckled, smiling his dangerous dragon smile as he walked into the castle with the others. Nothing could describe how happy he was that he was able to go with Akash....well, except the hot and tingly feeling he was getting from Akash's gaze.

* * *

Yay! So yeah.....I really don't have much to say except I'm sorry for Aylin 'cause shes a made up character, but she'll...vaguely have a purpose....Okay! So she's there for *%& ^& *#$% H*& !$% S&%$


	7. Puppy Pause

~Is in bliss~ I'm so pretty and witty and gay for Sasukeeeeee!!!! (Don't ask, it's an icon)

So anyways, I totally shouldn't be up (it's midnight forty-two) since I have to wake up at five A.M., but hey, I'm happy and jittery and excited cause one of my favvy Authors commented on one of my stories~

It's always a blessing!!!! ~Eyes squeeze~ Ah, so happy! Let's have some fun, this beat is sick, I wanna take a ride on your disco stick! (P.S. those are _so_ Lady Gaga's lyrics) Stupid radio....

* * *

"The others are eating as I strangle everything that's happened in the past two day from your gold-protected brain."

Katsuya looked fondly over to the lonely thief sitting on the chair beside his bed. He missed these talks. There was nothing like a Egyptian-thief on Modern Domino Gangster heart-to-heart. Chirna had talked to Katsuya and comforted him, but did nothing to pull out all of the dark events and open them to the light like Bakura did...as awkward and rather backwards as it sounded.

Holding his head he grinned and started to tell Bakura everything from 'running away from home' to Leto talking into his brain, to the pulling into the portals, the forced bath, Chirna's hug in the bath and the warm, odd feeling he got from her and Leto, telling Bakura it wasn't lust or anything like that before moving on with the ride on Akash and going to the village and then going to the forest where he was lost and circled up again back here. Somewhere in the history of the jam-packed three days he'd also managed fit in the nightmares. Bakura listened quietly, watching Katsuya's boisterous hand motion as he explained and only rose angrily to his feet when Katsuya ended his spiel with: "I missed ya guys."

"'_Missed_' us? You ran away and were afraid to come find us!" Bakura hissed, fisting the front of Katsuya's shirt and yanking them face to face, "Like we wouldn't help you! I know you better then that, Retriever, you're _lying_ about runnin' away from home. There's only one thing I don't know about you, and it's got to be what the hell's goin' on at your home--" Katsuya flinched at the word 'home' not really knowing where _home_ was right now, "and that's what's keeping you hiding!"

"Fuck off, Bak'ra," Katsuya replied, feeling the defenses blacken and freeze over his emotion pit in his stomach like every time Bakura tried to fish into that part of his life. Bakura, many times, had been really close to punching the hole in Katsuya's barrier, but he'd always tire out before he could, giving Katsuya enough time to rebuild it. This time, though, he was in top condition, feeling better then he had any other time he'd had his fetch sessions with Bakura and he wasn't going to let there be a _dent_ in his armor. He swatted off Bakura's hand and leaned back against the bed's back-board. This was one part of his life he didn't want anyone to know about. "It ain't no one's concern."

"It became _my_ concern when it involved Ryou worrying and you gettin' hurt."

"You dumb shit, leave it alone," the blonde said, narrowing a glare in rebut of Bakura's narrowed eyes. They glared-battle each other for a few minutes, neither of them blinking, neither of them taking their eyes off each other in the familiar battle of war.

Bakura finally sighed and looked away, dropping his shoulders before grabbing Katsuya's shirt and pulling the boy into a hug. It didn't take long for him to feel the blonde wrap his arms around his waist and start to cry and fist Bakura's shirt. Bakura played with Katsuya's hair and scratching the blonde's head like someone might do to soothe an aching puppy. It always happened like this. Bakura would get onto something, he'd see the coldness and pain in the honey-eyes and he'd break and just hold the blonde.

Katsuya had never told him, but Bakura knew about the kid's rough home life. Bakura survived on examining people in Egypt. He had to know their patterns, where they would be and when, where the 'police' were and which directions they were coming and going. He'd seen Katsuya do a rather too good of a job at hiding a limp and at times when he was close to the blonde he could smell the cover-up make-up Katsuya used to hide his bruises. The kid was athletic but didn't participate in gym because he didn't change. Bakura had seen the winces, the punch-hold backs when people hugged him, the holding of his side when he thought no one would notice.

The only time Bakura had seen Katsuya with a short sleeved shirt was when he was away from his father for a while.

He also knew the kid could fight, defend himself, run. There was no group that Katsuya couldn't take or run from that would give him such bad injuries. The person doing harm to Katsuya had to be some one the boy cared for; someone Katsuya wouldn't fight back. He may not of been completely literate, seeing as how he barely learned hieroglyphics in Egypt and screw this other language he was lucky he was able to learn to speak by coming from his Hikari, but he had good common sense. Two pizzas and two pizzas made four pizzas, and that was all there was to it.

"Hey, Retriever, I've told ya before, I ain't gonna get mad if ya come in while me and Ryou are having sex if your hurt. Ryou may not be to happy, but he'd be quick to forgive if he knew ya needed help," Bakura said. Katsuya didn't move other then the small, silent, arrhythmic breathing patterns of his chest. "Ryou and I care about you."

Katsuya continued to stay small and silent.

Then there was a loud bang on the door before some warning barks and another big bang.

Katsuya shot up, looking at the door surprised and still crying. He reached under his pillow instinctively and grabbed the knife, waiting for the moment he needed it even with Bakura there.

Bakura frowned walking to the door and opening it to have his ankle attacked by a very small, uncontrolled wolf pup. He lifted his ankle-- Aylin hovering in the air, holding on-- and leaned over to examine the small beast with a scrunched face. "That hurts, ya know."

Aylin growled and dropped onto her rump before stream-lining for Katsuya on the bed and turning and growling at the thief, "_How _dare_ you make Mother cry!? I'll bite off your pee-pee!_"

Katsuya chuckled and scratched her between her tense shoulder blades. She flinched trying to stay alert but melted anyways as he angled his fingers to massage her lightly and give her a soft scratching at the same time. She felt so pathetic being so easily subdued, and especially since she had every wish she was some sort of cat so she could just _purr_. She wanted to protect her mother, but when her mother did this....Oh Goddess!

Katsuya watched Aylin as she melted down, first to her tummy, then her head got down as Katsuya scratched behind her ears, and as he continued down her neck, her eyes rolled and shut.

Bakura watched with a wicked smiled on his face as he watched Katsuya wipe his eyes, smiling, and murder the puppy using ultimate bliss. He was such a good _Mother_, knowing instinctively all those wonderful things that calmed the rowdy kids down and look cute doing it at the same time.

"Y'know, had I not loved Ryou so much, I'd rape you right now."

That earned a smack with a pillow from the human and a warning growl and ear movement from the wolf. Bakura laughed, walking back over to the bed.

Aylin snarled and growled, her lips pulled back to show her teeth and her eyes open and narrow, but her mother was still doing all those _wonderful_ things to her. Should she really attack this person? Her mother didn't seemed threatened by the man, actually, he seemed really fond of the man because he wasn't letting off any smells that indicated otherwise...Maybe she should stop being so protective of her mother against the others....

But then there was the pheromone-human.

Aylin actual liked Seto, being dragged by him and the others to eat lunch. He'd made her stay and eat, which she didn't like, but was glad he did when she finished her food and hunted down her mother. Her tummy felt much better full then it had empty and the food was delicious! However, he _was_ the pheromone-man. He released pheromones to her mother as much as her mother did him and Aylin had no idea how to feel about that.

Settling for not thinking about it and just letting her mother pet her, she relaxed.

Bakura sat back down, smiling back at Katsuya that was goofily smiling at him with a tear-puffy face.

There was a soft knock on the door and the three occupants in the room looked over. Ryou, Yugi, and Mokuba stood in the door way and Yugi was carrying a large plate of food full of delicious delights that Katsuya had found he loved since coming here. All three of them in the hallway were smiling at them and wandered in.

"It's nice to see you awake, Jou," Mokuba said, laughing a little remembering how Katsuya had _fainted_.

"What ya laughin' at? I'm dressed!" Katsuya exclaimed, tugging on his shirt.

"I'm going to go see if there's anything left," Bakura stood, excusing himself.

"There is," Ryou said, "Leto and Kyran were still eating and talking to Yami."

Bakura smiled, thanking him and patting on the head as he passed his Hikari.

"So, how ya feelin', Jou?" Yugi asked, bringing the tray over cautiously as he spotted the wolf pup eying him suspiciously, but she wasn't growling so he couldn't be in _too_ much danger. Katsuya was handling the pup well.

"I'm okay, my head 'urts a little...what happened?"

Mokuba laughed louder, "You _fainted_."

"I _what_?!" Katsuya exclaimed, throwing the covers off of himself and on to the lulled Aylin. Mokuba's eyes widened and he started to run away. Katsuya growled and started to chase him about the room, yelling, "Get your scrawny white _ass _back here, Mokuba Kaiba!!!"

"Noooo! Seto! Hellllllp!"

"Oh, don't you dare cry for your brother you wimp!"

Yugi and Ryou smiled, softly and sadly, to each other. Katsuya was fine, acting as if they hadn't not seen each other for three months. Like nothing was wrong with it or him. After Katsuya had gotten Mokuba in a headlock and given him a good, hot noogie, smiling and laughing he looked up to see the two's sad-happy faces and frowned.

He let go of Mokuba, who looked back surprised at Katsuya's sudden softness. What he saw broke his heart. Katsuya looked guilty and sad, but was smiling like he _wasn't_ about to break out in tears like the ones that had already puffed and reddened his eyes. Yugi and Ryou suddenly looked guilty themselves, watching Katsuya depress himself with degrading thought about himself.

Aylin, though, stretched and readied to go on feel-good duty. She struggled from the tangle of the blankets and pranced over to her mother and whimpered at his feet, "_Mother, don't be sad, you make me sad when you're sad. I don't like it when you're sad._"

"I'm not sad...." Katsuya lied, crouching down and picking the pup up.

"Jou, we're sorry," Yugi apologized.

"For what, Yug'?" Katsuya asked as Aylin licked his face clean of threatening tears.

"For making you sad, we didn't mean to..."

Katsuya suddenly got defensive but tried to keep it down. He felt the urge to to yell '_to what!?', _but waved his hand in front of his face, "Don't worry about it."

Aylin nipped at his chin, smelling his suddenly defensive pheromones, and looked at him in a way that told him that, on his command, she would chew off anyone's ankle he needed her to. He laughed and kissed her head.

"But--" Yugi tried to start, but Katsuya knew it was his fault for disappearing in the first place which started everything and interrupted him.

"What ya got for lunch for me?"

Ryou and Yugi brightened up, but Mokuba had to hold the urge to step on Katsuya's foot. He knew Yugi and Ryou knew Katsuya was trying to change the subject, and they were too warm-hearted for them not to be happy Katsuya was trying to move on to a happier prospect, but Katsuya was acting like an idiot, which --something else Mokuba knew-- he was not.

All of them migrated like nomads to the bed and Katsuya began telling them fun things about the place like the market --the one they told him they went through looking for him-- and riding Akash. Someone would make a joke and eventually Mokuba and Katsuya got into a war where they kept bumping each other to make each other lose balance.

And hour or so later, Chirna knocked on the door and smiled at them, "Hey, Leto's starting a card game, if any of you wants to join."

All of them jumped up and head for the door. Katsuya paused, scooping up Aylin and being the last out, but Chirna grabbed him and wrapped him in a warm hug. "Katsuya, I'm glad I adopted you. You have such sweet friends!"

Katsuya blushed, hesitating to tell her she wouldn't even know him if he wasn't friends with Yugi and that she hadn't _really_ adopted him, but he smiled, warmed by her soft presence and he pulled back kissing her cheek, "Thanks, Ma."

Chirna smiled brightly, her face dusted red, but it wasn't nearly as red as Katsuya's, whose redness entered down his shirt. He was slightly expecting Chirna to smack him, for speaking out of line and not asking before calling her 'Ma', as she moved, but she just kissed his cheek back motherly. "You're welcome," she said, afraid to call him 'sweetie' like she wanted to as his face turned a shade darker. If she wasn't careful, he might explode!

She patted his butt to get a move on and he squeaked, moving on.

------------

"Go fish."

_What do you mean I have to refresh the entire system?! I don't know how!_

Seto sighed, "You're just as incompetent as the fools I hire. Tell the system manger you have business to attend and have him do it."

_At least those fools get paid._

"You live in _my_ mansion, eating _my_ food, spending _my_ money. No, I don't pay you." Seto spat back, ignoring the stares from the magician and sorcerer as he picked up a card and put his last card down as a pair with it.

Leto and Kyran sighed in defeat, _again_. Seto had won the last three rounds of Go-Fish they had played and he was half busy yelling at his Yami!

"I've got them! And look, Sleeping Beaut's awake!" Chirna chimed, bouncing in the room with the four boys behind her.

All four of them were smiling and they bounced to the table; Yugi sat by Atemu and Katsuya took the other side of Yugi with Seto on his other side, and Mokuba sat on Seto's empty side while Chirna joined her husband and son as well as Ryou and Bakura on the other side of the table.

"Alright, what game should we play?" Leto asked, but Kyran already started making piles of cards.

"Egyptian Rummy."

----------------------------------------

It was a mad duel between Seto Kaiba and Katsuya Jounouchi, though it was possible, by game, rules for the others to be able to rejoin the game, the way Katsuya--who had moved to the opposite side of the table of Seto-- and Seto were battling it, they feared for their hands and left the two to fight to the death alone.

SLAP!

"Stupid mutt, you won't beat me."

SLAP!

"Oh yeah, Moneybags? Watch me! I ain't gonna lose!"

SLAP!

"Please, you don't stand a chance."

SLAP!

"Oh yeah? Then why do I have more cards?!"

SLAP!

"Just a matter of time, Puppy."

SLAP!

. . .

"Did ja jus' call me 'Puppy'?"

. . .

"Get over it," Seto said, placing down his card and waiting for Katsuya to also, but the blonde just stared at him, his face slightly tinted red and his eyes glowed with confusion, "Slip of the tongue."

"'Slip of the tongue' as in what, Kaiba!?" Katsuya said, placing all his cards on the table and standing straight from his mad-hovering position. If he didn't know better, he'd think 'Puppy' was an actual _nickname _from Seto that had no hard feelings about it. The thought made Katsuya's hopes crash and his heart speed up as suddenly he had found himself running from the room.

Seto called 'Mutt' after him, but he didn't turn around, but Aylin, who had slept guard at Katsuya' feet and then got up after the blonde, stopped and looked at Seto, "_If you desire to be this way then stay away from Mother! Stupid Pheromone Human._"

Seto stared at where not only the wolf-pup had been, but where Katsuya had left and suddenly, out of nowhere, his heart started to thump loudly, nervously in his chest. He fisted his shirt over where his heart was, feeling the painful beats not only against his ribs but his knuckles as well. Hopelessly he sat boneless in his chair and looked up at the ceiling, confused.

What had happened? It was just 'Puppy'. Just a name. But Katsuya was _his_ 'Puppy'.

Seto rubbed his face, not believing he had so massively slipped.

--------------

Katsuya sat on his bed. Seto was such an _asshole_. A complete and utter, mind-raging _asshole_. He'd to anything to kill the dick-face.

Okay, so that was beyond not true. It wasn't Seto's fault he had overreacted...and he would never want Seto dead; also, he certainly wouldn't want to be the one that killed him. Katsuya just snapped. Well, not him entirely before some invisible cord in his mind did, but when Seto called him 'Puppy'...

Katsuya's face bloomed and he bit his lips.

He'd had wet dreams, yeah, Seto always started out calling him '_Puppy' _before Katsuya would find himself against some surface fully being devoured. Being complete in a haze and molested to the highest degree of euphoria.

He shivered, thinking about it.

"_Mother,_" Aylin said, scratching at the door Katsuya had viciously slammed as he tore into his room trying to get away from...he didn't know. Maybe it was Seto, maybe it was himself. If it was himself then he was screwed.

Seto seemed to be the best answer.

"Aylin...." Katsuya called, walking to the door and opening to see Aylin poking her head up at him. He frowned, seeing the splint on her leg. She'd been bouncing and running around so much, he'd forgotten she'd broken it. He felt like a horrible mother, forgetting that his 'daughter' was injured in an almost priceless way. "I forgot about your leg."

She wiggled her nose between his leg and the door and squirmed into the room. She walked so normally, like her leg wasn't broken at all.

"_I am a demon, and although I was too weak to heal myself earlier, once you had given me strength_,_ I had healed it. It is no longer broken," _She stated proudly.

"Still...I'm sorry, I shouldn't of," Katsuya apologized and his shoulders slumped. He closed the door to lean his back against it and slid down onto his ass, feeling guilty also swell inside from forgetting Aylin's leg.

He felt torn and confused. People were here for him, they'd risked their lives for him, but he didn't really want to go back. And Seto! Seto had called him 'Puppy' and came and hugged him and--and---

And he had a mother here. He had Aylin and Akash and Kyran and Leto. He had most of everything he ever wanted here: family, friends, a place he could call _home_, a place he wasn't afraid of staying at. He'd didn't have the things he really like in the other realm (i.e. Serenity, Seto, and his good friends) but...

His stomach knotted. That's why he ran. By saying something like 'Puppy' tore him from wanting to stay here as much as he wanted to leave. It was just getting too complicated. He should leave but he didn't want to. He'd lived most of his life based on necessity, for once since Duel Monsters he wanted to do something he _wanted_.

Aylin looked at him with her ears pinned back and her tail between her legs as she watched her mother breakdown. This was all that pheromone-human's fault. If he would of just kept his mouth shut Katsuya wouldn't be so sad or lost. The empty, confused look in his dark ember eyes broke Aylin's heart. She nuzzled him, hoping to bring him back, but all Katsuya did was absently pet her.

She whimpered and supportively licked his hand. He shouldn't be like this. She hadn't known him long, only a few hours really, but she remember the passion and light from when he had taken care her with a gentleness she would of never gotten from her birth mother or pack and now that light seemed to flicker dangerously with this gust of wind.

"**_Papa, are you alright?_**" Akash asked from outside the door. "**_Papa? You do not feel fine. There is an uncomfortable tug from you, Papa, and I am concerned._**"

Katsuya squirmed a bit away from the door enough so it could be opened for Akash. "I'm fine."

Akash snuck his head in and looked at Aylin who shook her head. He looked back over to his papa and smirked in a way that had Katsuya forget his worries and fear for his life.

"**_Aylin,_**" Akash said,"**_I believe Papa needs a bath_**."

And hence, as Katsuya tried to scramble away, Akash nipped the back of his shirt and picked him up.

"I don' wan' a bath!!!!!"

-------------------

Everyone--well, almost everyone, Seto and Kane weren't-- was standing around the bath pool, chuckling, smiling and smirking as Katsuya blew the water out of his mouth.

"Thanks."

"**_You're welcome Papa,_**" Akash said smugly and curled up beside the bath.

Katsuya swam to the edge where he could stand and lifted his leg so he could get of his boot because Akash had just dumped him, clothes and all, into the water. "And you," he said to everyone else who were laughing at him, including a very annoying thief, "I will get you all for this."

"We didn't do anything Jou," Yugi defended, smiling.

"Exactly," Katsuya shot back and glared at Chirna who was holding a basket of oils and soaps and clothes. "An' of course ya take their side. Wha' kinda Mother are ya?"

She giggled, "The kinda that thing hygiene is an important aspect."

"I took a bath earlier when I was washing Aylin!" He cried and pouted...but he noticed something. Everyone was standing pretty close to the edge of the bath....

So of course he had to jump up and grab Atemu's wrist and bring him into the pool that created a chain of Atemu grabbing Yugi, who grabbed Ryou, who was grabbed by Bakura, and wound up having a mess of people now soaked and still dressed in the pool.

They looked stunned, the ones on land and in water, though the ones in water look slightly pissed, which Katsuya was sure they were, but he grinned, "I see why ya always dump me in the bath now: it's fun."

* * *

This chapter failed, like epically, so if you continue reading this, you have an amazing tolerance and I love you.

BTW: If you're an Author and/**_OR _**you have plot bunnies for fluffy and/or with bondage toys porn and are reading this, write some. Or update. Please. I bed of you. There needs to be more porn. Nothing has updated really in three days and I need cuteness. Badly. When you know a fic's first few lines by heart, sometimes you just need to read something new....You don't have to be an amazing writer. Hell, you may have never written anything and turn out to be one. Anything is appreciated!

And be proud I didn't put a note like that as a chapter.


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